Focus Areas for Galileo
- Outer Solar System
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The giant planets of the outer solar system—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—and their rings and moons and the ice dwarfs (e.g., Pluto, Charon, Sedna) beyond them hold many clues to the origin and evolution of our solar system as well as providing exciting opportunities for the search for habitable environments.
- Small Bodies of the Solar System
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NASA's Planetary Science missions to comets, asteroids and other small bodies help to expand our knowledge by providing close in observations of the small remnant pieces of the solar system's formation, revealing clues about the solar system's early history and evolution and how life came to exist on Earth.