Discovery and exploration of the Solar System Discovery and exploration of the Solar System Discovery and exploration of the Solar System is observation, visitation, and increase in knowledge and understanding of Earth's "cosmic neighborhood". This includes the Sun, Earth and the Moon, the major planets including Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, their satellites, as well as smaller bodies including comets, asteroids, and dust. For many thousands of years, astronomers maintained a geocentric world view and did not recognize the existence of a Solar System. Most believed Earth was stationary at the center of the Universe and categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects
Exploration of Jupiter is also searching for clues about how Jupiter formed, including whether the planet has a rocky core, the amount of water present within the deep atmosphere, and how the mass is distributed within the planet. "Juno" also studies Jupiter's deep winds, which can reach speeds of 600 km/h. ESA's Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) has been selected as part of ESA's Cosmic Vision science program. It is expected to launch in 2022 and, after a series of flybys in the inner Solar System, arrive in 2030. In 2012, the European Space Agency's selected the "JUpiter ICy moon Explorer" (JUICE) as