why no interest in the outer planets?

[petermartin5]

When you think about it most of the Solar System remains unexplored. The surface of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are a complete unknown.Most astronomers think that these planets have a solid centre so why no space probes? One can speculate forever but there is only one way to find out what is " down there", take a look.

I dont mean to over simplifly but just think about it. Half the solar system is an unknown quantity.

This lack of interest by NASA etc has always puzzled me. Anybody got a comment?

Now I will sit back and await the more informed to tell me why this cant happen.

Pete

[GordonCopestake]

Mostly because it takes such a long time to get there. The outer planets are MUCH further away than most people think and we still havn't explored out nearest neighbours properly yet. Im sure we'll get around to it when the budget allows

[Astroman]

A bigger problem is the outer planets are gas giants. Many times the size of Earth, their atmospheres become so dense that probe don't survive the descent. When Galileo plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere, it lasted just about an hour before the atmospheric pressure crushed it. Even if we could land a probe on an as yet unconfirmed "surface" the atmosphere and electromagnetic field of the gas giants would prevent radio signals to Earth. We may collect data, assuming the probe survived, but we couldn't transmit commands or receive said data. Big problems, these.

[Carl]

I again NASA should do more probe missions to neptune uranus etc.

I`ve always wandered what`s on/in the planets neptune etc.