COSI Telescope Comes Together
By NASA
Quick Summary
UC Berkeley engineers and managers watch as the COSI (Compton Spectrometer and Imager) detector assembly is slowly raised from a table in this July 8, 2026, image. The four pieces of silver material on the top of the detector box cover the flex circuits, which carry signals from the detectors to the readout electronics. COSI […]
Space Explainer: Mapping Our Solar System
Our solar system contains eight planets, five recognized dwarf planets including Pluto, and well over 200 moons, along with countless asteroids and comets left over from its formation roughly 4.6 billion years ago. Every world in it formed from the same swirling disk of gas and dust around the young Sun, which is why terrestrial planets cluster near the Sun and gas giants dominate the outer solar system.
Spacecraft have now visited every planet at least once, but exploration remains wildly uneven — Mars and the Moon have been mapped in exhaustive detail, while Uranus and Neptune have each been seen up close for only a few days total, during single flybys decades ago.
Explore the Solar SystemSource: NASA
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