TARGET_DESCRIPTION |
Target Overview
===============
The Solar System consists of the Sun, all celestial bodies orbiting
the Sun (including the planets, their satellites, asteroids, comets,
and meteroids), and the interplanetary medium (including dust)
extending to the heliopause. This target is primarily used by the
PDS to describe data acquired during the interplanetary cruise
portion of planetary missions. The assignment of the 'SOLAR SYSTEM'
target to a data set does not imply that the data within the data
set are unmodified by the interstellar medium or other sources
outside of the Solar System.
Target Parameters
=================
None of the normal parameters that the PDS maintains about other
targets apply to the Solar System, except possibly mass. The Sun
(1.9891E30 Kg) contains 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System and
most of the remaining mass is contained in Jupiter. The Solar System
Barycenter moves in a nearly circular orbit about the center of the
Galaxy (which lies about 8500 parsecs away in the constellation
Sagittarius) at a mean speed of about 220 km/sec.
|