Cosmic Vistas

How humans discovered the planets and how a few moving lights in the sky became a rich and complex solar system.

The moon is our nearest neighbour in space and the keeper of some of our oldest secrets. It is also our cosmic stepping stone to a future among the planets.

Thanks to a fleet of advanced spacecraft orbiting around and even landing on the surface of Mars, a new portrait of this red planet is emerging.

The gas giants of the outer solar system, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, represent very different kind of planets, with exotic atmospheres, liquid interiors and rings.

Looking to beyond the rocky and gaseous worlds, to the dark domain of Pluto and beyond, we may find the history of the solar system preserved for us in a deep freeze.