Discover: James Webb Space Telescope

Discover: Why We Need the James Webb Space Telescope

Space News: NASA Budget Bill Would Cancel Webb Telescope

As I've been scouring through astronomy books for the last couple days, the enormity of this field of study has started to hit home. I'm not even talking about the search for life on other planets, nebulas, black holes, the expansion of the universe, or any of that stuff. I'm referring to just our solar system. In an age where technology is expanding rapidly, new discoveries are made on almost a daily basis, and we're carrying tiny computers around in our pockets, it's almost baffling to think about how much we don't know about our planetary neighborhood. Looking at how quickly things progressed in the 1960's, you'd think we'd have astronauts orbiting around Uranus by now. Yet, it's not even remotely the case.

Yes, this is a picture of Uranus.

Starting in the late-1990's, we finally began to seriously study Mars, while we've almost completely neglected our own local satellite, The Moon. Venus, our other neighbor, has been largely ignored. Mercury has gotten some attention as of late, thanks to the MESSENGER spacecraft. Jupiter and Saturn seem to be under some form of constant observation (Saturn is being perused by Cassini at the moment). But then there's Uranus, Neptune, and (arguably) Pluto. What do we know about them? Compared to Mars, we know virtually nothing about these outer planets. There are some plans in the works to revisit Neptune, New Horizons is on its way to Pluto (arrives in 2015), but Uranus isn't even on the table.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Limited budgets and all that. We'll get there eventually. It's just depressing that the best pictures we have are from 23 years ago. I was too young to even recall Voyager II, let alone remember the pictures being unveiled to the public. If it wasn't for the impending Pluto exploration, I'd be in a rather surly mood right now. Just think... No human being has ever laid eyes on the surface of Pluto in any detail, yet we will be doing exactly that in a few short years. I have to imagine that would give even the most jaded person a few goosebumps.