Stability of the Solar System that keeps the far side of the Moon away from the Earth. Mercury is in a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance. The planets' orbits are chaotic over longer timescales, such that the whole Solar System possesses a Lyapunov time in the range of 2–230 million years. In all cases this means that the position of a planet along its orbit ultimately becomes impossible to predict with any certainty (so, for example, the timing of winter and summer become uncertain), but in some cases the orbits themselves may change dramatically. Such chaos manifests most strongly as changes in eccentricity, with some planets' orbits
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research interactions with the solar wind, the atmospheric dynamics, or the generation of the terrestrial magnetic field by means of currents deep in the iron core of our planet. In addition, the Institute has along tradition in cometary research. A major highlight was the camera developed at the Institute for the ESA spacecraft Giotto which delivered the first photographs ever of a comet’s nucleus in 1986. A particular challenge was the development of numerous scientific instruments for the ESA Mission Rosetta, such as cameras, chemical analyzers, and essential components for the landing module Philae. Rosetta was launched in 2004, and matched