Word: planetful
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Battered and pitted from its encounter with the rings of Saturn, the Pioneer 11 spacecraft headed into deep space last week, its mission accomplished. In its sweep past Saturn, it had provided the best look yet at the solar system's second largest planet, discovered what is probably an eleventh Saturnian moon and two more rings. It also confirmed the existence of another ring and a magnetic field, and dimmed hopes that Titan, Saturn's largest moon, might harbor some form of life...
...computer-enhanced Saturn pho tos taken by Pioneer were far better than any pictures of the planet shot through earthbound telescopes. More details of the famous rings were evident, and for the first time the bands formed by the yellow-and orange-hued clouds enveloping Sat urn could be clearly seen. Still, compared with the spectacular shots of Jupiter and its moons transmitted earlier this year by the twin Voyager spacecraft, the Pioneer pictures were disappointing. The difference is that Pioneer is equipped with a relatively crude camera-like instrument called an imaging photopolarimeter; the Voyagers have far more sophisticated...
...unmanned Pioneer 11 spacecraft was fast approaching Saturn, whose image was being sent back with more clarity than could be obtained by any earth-bound telescope. One especially intriguing view, taken by the robot from a distance of 3.2 million km (2 million miles), showed both the giant ringed planet, a huge gaseous sphere 815 times larger than earth, and its major moon, Titan, where scientists have not entirely given up hope of finding evidence of primitive life forms. Pioneer also radioed data on two other Saturnian satellites (among ten known ones): lapetus, whose puzzling bright side seems...
...society's smoking frictions of rapid change, the anxiety caused by a sense of impermanence. The nation's creative forces, however, remain remarkably strong - in the sciences, for example, where achievements in physics, mathematics, biology and medicine rank beside anything so far accomplished on the planet. Before anyone tries to use too seriously the awful and thrilling word decadence, he ought to distinguish between the customary mess of life and the terminal wreckage of death...
...Pioneer 11 spacecraft is also on the verge of making history. On Saturday, Sept. 1, the 260-kg (570-lb.) robot will become the first envoy from earth to reconnoiter Saturn, passing within 21,300 km (13,300 miles) of the solar system's second largest planet. If the flyby goes as planned, Pioneer 11 will not only send back 50 colored closeups of the great ringed gaseous sphere but provide valuable data on its interior structure, temperature, density and magnetic field...