en http://www.sunearthplan.net/ The Sun Earth Plan aims to learn more about the region of space dominated by our sun. Aurorae are caused when charged particles stream along the magnetic field of a planet and into its atmosphere. On Earth these charged particles come from the solar wind – a stream of particles that emanates from the Sun. Variations in the Sun control the frequency and intensity of these beautiful displays that can also herald problems – such as interference with satellite communications and power distribution.On Jupiter however, the d ... http://www.sunearthplan.net/6/898/Spotlight-on-Saturns-Aurorae Most major solar system bodies generate a substantial magnetic field (Mercury, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), while those that definitely don’t are Venus, the Earth’s moon, comets, and asteroids. Mars seems to be somewhere in the middle, producing a weak field that partly deflects the solar wind in some regions, while Pluto remains a mystery. Jupiter and Saturn, both gas giants with no solid surface, generate such stron ... http://www.sunearthplan.net/6/310/Extra-terrestrial-aurora The Martian surface will be explored for conditions favourable for past or present life thanks to micro-machine technology supplied by Imperial College London. A team at Imperial’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering have provided substrates—surfaces used to hold samples for imaging—for the Mars Phoenix mission. These substrates will hold dust and soil for examination in a microscope station attached to the Pho ... http://www.sunearthplan.net/6/280/The-Phoenix-Rises Mars once had water on the surface, and it once had a magnetic field. But overall, the Red Planet today is defenceless against the onslaught of the solar wind, which can pull or ‘scavenge’ the atmosphere away; and there’s no shield against the radiation which cascades through the atmosphere. Mars only has a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere, barely one per cent as dense as Earth’s atmosphere. Venus, on the other hand, has an ... http://www.sunearthplan.net/6/20/Mars-and-Venus-Earths-failed-sibling-worlds On a much more complex scale was the creation of the Surface Science Package (SSP) for the Huygens probe. This was a suite of instruments that studied the surface of Titan. The SSP was created by a British team, working first at the University of Kent in Canterbury and later at the Open University, with help from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. This package revolutionised our understanding of Titan. Meanwhile, Imperial College took the lead i ... http://www.sunearthplan.net/6/19/Building-Cassini Cassini is one of the most sophisticated spacecraft ever built, with thirty separate experiments to measure and probe every aspect of Saturn and its family of moons. The craft was launched in 1997 and took seven years to reach its target. Within the first six months of arrival, it released a separate vehicle, the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, bound for the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Huygens was a brilliant success, and Cass ... http://www.sunearthplan.net/6/18/Cassinis-scientific-harvest