When they send stuff like the hubble space shuttle out, do they go up and across the solar system? Whenever teachers talk about the universe it always makes the solar system seem perfectly horizontally aligned, is this true?
2007-09-10 10:25:24 · 4 answers · asked by joezen777 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Well, the shuttle & hubble telescope are simply in Earth orbit, but other spacecraft, like Pioneer 10 & 11, or the Voyager twins, are able to hop from planet to planet because they're more or less orbting in the same plane. Think of a dinner plate, with the sun at the center - all the planetary orbits are within a few degrees of it being a flat plate. It's not perfect, but they vary by less than 18 degrees, if memory serves.
2007-09-10 10:30:55 · answer #1 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Hubble never left earth orbit, but you might be thinking of Pioneers, Voyagers, Galileo, Cassini, Messenger, New Horizons, and other space probes that did leave earth orbit for the rest of the solar system.
The orbits of the planets are not perfectly horizontally aligned, but they're pretty close. Close enough that you can make a simple model that way, and teach it to school-kids that way.
But, if you are an astronomer, or a scientist sending space probes out to the planets, you really need to know *exactly* where the planets are.
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2007-09-10 17:42:21 · answer #2 · answered by tlbs101 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Visualize the inside of a hollow ball that is immensely huge.
That is space. The Earth is somewhere inside of the ball. Everything else is inside of the ball also. To get from here to there, you just fly (in something) in a straight line from where you are to where that object or place is (or will be, by the time you get there). Remember, everything in space is moving.
The tendency to explain things in terms of two dimensions comes from the fact that a black board or a sheet of paper is flat. It is the first thing one reaches for to explain a concept to someone else. You never see anyone reach for a 3D Sphere or Cube. Star Charts are printed on flat paper sheets. Etc.
2007-09-10 20:19:28 · answer #3 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Most of the planets lie in a near plane, only Pluto's orbit (no longer a planet btw) varies much.
2007-09-10 17:31:46 · answer #4 · answered by Runa 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋