Colton’s visit today prompted quite the exploration, on top of the conversations the kids held. Colton informed us that he’d been educated by his parent that NASA was gone, dead, no longer. I suggested perhaps his comprehension of the statement might be inconclusive: I hoped perhaps he’d heard that the shuttle program had been put to rest and had interpreted this as all of NASA being ended. He was insistent that he’d been told that NASA was no longer a company and that he also was aware that the shuttle program had ceased to exist. So, we went hunting for information.
What follows are clips and links of articles and videos we discovered, and both kids (Colton-neighbor, and Lily) engaged in continued conversation as we explored.

 
OUR FINDINGS
We started at the source: NASA’s web presence for active missions.
Presently, these are the active missions being managed/implemented by NASA

NASA Missions A-Z

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X 

A

ACE
AIM
Apollo
Apollo-Soyuz
Aqua
Aquarius
ARCTAS
ARTEMIS
Asteroid Redirect Initiative
ASTRO-1
ASTRO-2
Astro-E2
ATTREX
Aura
 

B

BARREL
 

C

CALIPSO
Cassini-Huygens
CHAMP
Chandra X-Ray Observatory
CINDI
Clementine
CATS: Cloud-Aerosol Transport System
Cloudsat
Cluster ESA/NASA Mission
​Commercial Crew
Commercial Space Transportation
Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory
Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS)
CubeSats
Curiosity
CYGNSS (Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System)
 

D

Dawn
Deep Impact
DISCOVER-AQ
 

E

Earth Observing-1
Earth Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (EP-TOMS)
Earth Radiation Budget Satellite
EPOXI
​Euclid
Europa Mission
Exploration Plans
Explorer
Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer
 

F

FAST
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
Fire and Smoke
FUSE
 

G

GALEX
Galileo
Gemini
Genesis
Geotail
GLAST
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)
Glory
GOES
GRAIL
Gravity Probe-B
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)
 

H

Herschel
HETE-2
Hinode (Solar-b)
Hubble
Hurricanes
 

I

IBEX
ICESat
ICESat-2
Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON)
IMAGE
InSight
​International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL)
International Space Station
IRIS: Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph
 

J

James Webb Space Telescope
Jason
Juno

K

Kepler and K2
 

L

LADEE: Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer
LAGEOS 1 and 2
Landsat
Landsat Data Continuity Mission
LCROSS
LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)
Lunar Quest Program
 

M

Magellan
Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)
Mariner
Mars 2020 Mission Plans
Mars Express
Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity
Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Odyssey
Mars Pathfinder
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Science Laboratory
MAVEN: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN
Mercury (Human Spaceflight Program)
MESSENGER: Mercury, Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging
Mini-RF
Moon Mineralogy Mapper
 

N

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)
NEOWISE
New Horizons
NMP EO-1
NOAA-N
NOAA-N Prime
NPP
NuSTAR
 

O

Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2
Operation Ice Bridge
Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2
Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle
OSIRIS-REX
 

P

Phoenix
Pioneer
Pioneer Venus
Planck
POES
Polar
 

Q

QuikSCAT
 

R

Radiation Belt Storm Probes/Van Allen Probes
Ranger
RapidScat
RHESSI
Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT)
Rosetta
RXTE
 

S

SDO
SEAC4RS
SERVIR
Scientific Balloons
Shuttle-Mir
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
Skylab
Small Satellites
SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive)
SOFIA
SOHO
Solar Anomalous and Magnetospherice Particle Explorer (SAMPEX)
Solar Probe Plus
Solar Orbiter Collaboration
Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE)
Sounding Rockets
Space Launch System (SLS)
Space Shuttle
Space Station
Space Technology 5
Spitzer
Stardust-NExT
STEREO
Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS)
Suomi NPP
Surveyor
Suzaku
Swift
 

T

TDRS
Terra
TESS
THEMIS
TIMED
TOMS-EP
TOPEX/Poseidon
TRACE
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)
TWINS
 

U

Ulysses
Upper Atmosphere Radiation Satellite (UARS)
(Back to Top)

V

Van Allen Probes
Viking
Voyager
(Back to Top)

W

Wide-Field Infrared Explorer
WIND
WISE
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)
 

X

XMM Newton
 

Missions By Topic

 
Ok, at this point, both kids concluded NASA is very much alive. We continued, however, because Colton wanted to talk about the various disasters associated with the shuttle program, and as fitting for this age range (Lily and Colton are within a year of each other, Colton being 13 months older), let’s be as morbid as possible!

How Many Earths Can Fit in Jupiter?

The answer to “how many Earth’s can fit into Jupiter” is 1,321.3. You can do the math yourself if you would like. Take the volume of Jupiter(1.43128 x 10¹⁵ km³, divide it by the volume of Earth(1.08321 x 10¹² km³ and you should end with 1,321.3. It has an equatorial radius of 71,492 km, which is 11.2 times larger than Earth’s. As you can tell from that number, Jupiter is a very large planet. In fact, it accounts for 2.5 times as much mass as all of the other planets in the Solar System.
Just to give you another way to look at how much larger Jupiter is than the other planets, you could fit 763.6 Earths inside Saturn, 63.1 Earths inside Uranus, and 57.7 Earths inside Neptune. The only object in the Solar System larger than Jupiter is the Sun. You could fit 1.3 million Earths inside the Sun. Since simply answering the question “how many Earth’s can fit into Jupiter” would make too short an article, here are a few more interesting facts about Jupiter.
Jupiter’s large size is matched by its large gravitational pull. Its gravity has trapped many moons. Of its 63 moons, 59 are thought to have been captured as they flew by the gas giant. The largest four, the Galilean moons, are believed to have formed by accretion in situ, so are considered to be natural satellites of Jupiter.

The planet is constantly feeding off of its moons to create a little known ring system. The rings are so faint that it wasn’t until the flyby of Voyager 1 that they were discovered. The “Main” ring is about 7,000 km wide and has an outer boundary 129,130 km from the center of the planet. It encompasses the orbits of the small moons Adrastea and Metis. Closer to the planet is the “halo” ring. The halo is a broad, faint torus of material about 20,000 km thick and extending halfway down to Jupiter’s cloudtops.
On the outside of the main ring is the extremely faint “Gossamer” ring, which includes the orbit of the moon Amalthea. It is believed to be composed of dust particles less than 10 microns in diameter. It extends to 129,000 km from the center of the planet and it 99,000 km wide.
Answering “how many Earth’s can fit into Jupiter” was simple enough, but, as you can see, leads to many more interesting facts. Hopefully, you will keep delving into topics surrounding Jupiter.
We’ve written many articles about Jupiter for Universe Today. Here’s an article about missions to Jupiter, and here’s an article with facts on Jupiter.
If you’d like more information on Jupiter, check out Hubblesite’s News Releases about Jupiter, and here’s a link to NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide to Jupiter.
We’ve also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast just about Jupiter. Listen here, Episode 56: Jupiter.

Challenger disaster: remembered