A whistlestop tour of our solar system

Find out where humanity has been in space in the 50 years since Sputnik. Produced using Celestia.

More: http://space.newscientist.com/channel/space-tech/sputnik-legacy

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• space
• solar
• system
• planet
• moon
• star
• galaxy
• pioneer
• voyager
• probe
• new
• scientist
• newscientist

[cowboybootstomp]

I never knew the Poineer probes are drifting off course! Wonder what's causing that?

Maybe they will come full circle and return to the inner solar system.

[newscientistvideo]

No-one knows! :) One idea is that our theory of gravity isn't quite right and needs a tweak. However the alternative version of gravity doesn't work either: space dot newscientist dot com slash article slash mg19426105.400. The course change isn't enough to bring them back to the inner solar system, though.

Michael Marshall, online editorial assistant

[DeadlyChinchilla]

Well, you don't drop a particularly successful theory just because you have a new problem. There are aspects of gravity we don't understand, so we may have to adapt our current theories as we learn more. It'll take time though, as most scientific truths do.

[newscientistvideo]

Oh, absolutely, I meant to say that. Obviously, one anomaly isn't enough to make you chuck a theory. It's more a question of how many diverse phenomena does the theory explain, and how many random numbers does it have in it. And at the moment gravity is doing well on both counts.

There's not enough space in these comments. :)

Michael Marshall, online editorial assistant

[miketheday]

Well done & informative for an update/refresher on the planets & exploration. I think some of the exploration money could also be well spent taking care of some of our own citizens here on Earth too. Why go back to Mars just because it;s there? Why not feed millions of starving, diseased People here on Earth, because we are HERE.

If you were an alien studying our little planet & our societies, wouldn't you view things a little differently? Would you ask yourself, why do they kill each other?

[tommybrett]

i would say that the theory of gravity is right but the 2 satelites that are going out of the solar system might of been took out by a object like a comet/astroid or something like that but i would say there`s something thats pulling on to the satelite that takes it to the oort cloud

[g00glian0]

@dpowers88 Good one!

[g00glian0]

@miketheday I think we kill each other because there are so many buttholes on this planet. Not a day goes by that someone isn't trying to run you off the road or whatever.

Do you really think giving all our money to poor people would help? I don't. I think lots of people are poor because of no self control. I believe there are countless people you could give a million dollars to and it would be gone within a year. Sorry, a lot off topic.

[SaturnAndItsRings]

celestia.....

[Gdayguy36]

If we could only find out how to travel at the speed of light, we'd be good.

[dpowers88]

I like that Accent is that Greek?.....lmao...well its all Greek to me =]

[nagualdesign]

Should have widened the field of view before you hit record, so the planets fit into the record window. :(

[Daty37]

hollly chunksauce! Mr. Brandon Kneecap FTW

[Blueroan123]

heyyy anyone from Mr. Ackles classs ! ahahaha i cant hear this stupid movie. its Julia :P