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[34.01] The Giant Planets in Our Solar System

H. B. Hammel (Space Science Institute)

During the 1980s, our understanding of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune was revolutionized by detailed images taken by the Voyager spacecraft. Virtually all astronomy textbooks today still use Voyager images of the planets and their retinues of rings and moons. However, those images were static: brief snapshots in time of complex and dynamic systems. In short, those images are no longer representative of the appearance of these planetary systems. Recently, our knowledge of these giant planets has undergone striking new advances. In this talk, I will bring you up to date on these planets, discussing the results from the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft, recent Hubble Space Telescope programs, imaging from the Keck 10-m telescope, and other observations. You will leave this talk with a new view of the distant planets in our Solar System.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.