The Nine Planets

	The Nine Planets
	A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System
	by Bill Arnett

The Nine Planets is an overview of the history, mythology, and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system. Each page has text and images, some have sounds and movies, most provide references to additional related information.
Interplanetary spacecraft have revolutionized planetary science. Very little of this document would have been possible without the space program.

Contents

Introduction
What's New
Express Tour
Overview of the Solar System
The Sun
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
  - The Moon
- Mars
  - Phobos
  - Deimos
- Jupiter
  - Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea and Thebe
  - Io
  - Europa
  - Ganymede
  - Callisto
  - Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, Elara, Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae and Sinope
  - Recently discovered moons
- Saturn
  - Pan and Atlas
  - Prometheus and Pandora
  - Epimetheus
  - Janus
  - Mimas
  - Enceladus
  - Tethys, Telesto and Calypso
  - Dione and Helene
  - Rhea
  - Titan
  - Hyperion
  - Iapetus
  - Phoebe
  - Recently discovered satellites
- Uranus
  - Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda and Puck
  - Miranda
  - Ariel
  - Umbriel
  - Titania
  - Oberon
  - Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, and 2001U1
- Neptune
  - Naiad, Thalassa, Despina and Galatea
  - Larissa
  - Proteus
  - Triton
  - Nereid
- Pluto and Charon
- Small Bodies
Other Solar Systems
Seeing the Solar System with your own eyes
Spacecraft involved in planetary science
How you can help support the continued exploration of space
Glossary of technical terms and proper names
Appendices
- Solar System Data: Orbital, Physical, Misc
- Extrema, the biggest, brightest, etc.
- Discovery Chronology
- The Origin of the Solar System
- Planetary Linguistics, including the planets' names in various languages
- Astronomical Names and how they're assigned
- Hypothetical Planets (or "Don't believe everything you read")
- Master Picture List, an index of planetary images on the Net
- Credits for those who helped make this possible
- Mirror sites: There are copies of The Nine Planets at many sites around the world.
- WWW Technical help: when something doesn't work
- Copyright Notice
- The Nine Planets Bookstore: explore the solar system offline
How to contact the author (for comments, questions and bug reports)

Our knowledge of our solar system is extensive. But it is far from complete. Some of the worlds have never even been photographed up close. The Nine Planets is an overview of what we know today. We are still exploring. Much more is still to come:

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
-- T. S. Eliot

... Introduction ... Overview ... Sun ... Data