Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2026

4 ASTRO PUBLISHING NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 ets have been imaged up close. All of this might lead us to believe that we now know the surfaces of those celestial bodies in detail. This is not the case. With the partial exception of the Moon, Mars, and a few minor bodies, we only have knowledge of all other rocky or icy surfaces on Is there alien technology in the Solar System? by Michele Ferrara F or over sixty years, space agen- cies have been sending probes throughout the Solar System, studying as many celestial bodies as possible with a wide variety of in- struments. All the planets, dozens of moons, numerous asteroids, sev- eral comets, and some dwarf plan- a large scale, with the smallest re- corded details measured in hun- dreds of meters, if not kilometers. Let’s look at a few examples. The M ESSENGER probe achieved a resolu- tion of 250 meters per pixel (m/px) on Mercury; the Magellan probe achieved 120-300 m/px on Venus;