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The Planetary Society Blog

Archive

Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.


  • Jun. 23, 2011 | 11:53 PDT | 18:53 UTC
    Vesta looks pretty battered
    There was a press briefing on Dawn today at NASA Headquarters, and there are new pictures! Here's what Vesta looked like as of three days ago, when Dawn was only 189,000 kilometers away. The images appear blurry because they've been magnified by a... More»
  • Jun. 22, 2011 | 22:08 PDT | Jun. 23 05:08 UTC
    According to Nature News, Curiosity is going to Gale
    Nature News is reporting that the Mars Science Laboratory mission has made its recommendation for the landing site for the next great Mars rover, and it's Gale crater. If this rumor turns out to be correct, it should be noted that this is not a... More»
  • Jun. 22, 2011 | 14:58 PDT | 21:58 UTC
    Guest Blog: Jason Davis: Your guide to a shuttle launch, part 1: The countdown
    by Jason Davis Atlantis is scheduled to lift off for the final time on July 8, marking the end of more than three decades of shuttle missions. The launch will be a final opportunity to watch one of the most beautiful, precise engineering displays... More»
  • Jun. 21, 2011 | 21:31 PDT | Jun. 22 04:31 UTC
    How to Wrap a Mars Rover, redux
    All right, I'll admit it: JPL's video is way, way cooler than mine. Four days of packing Curiosity up for shipping, condensed into under a minute. I love the moments where you see her wheels drop and dangle under her suspension, and then where they... More»
  • Jun. 21, 2011 | 06:23 PDT | 13:23 UTC
    The most exciting citizen science project ever (to me, anyway)
    A guest blogger here recently rounded up the large number of participatory research projects that are collectively known as citizen science. I think these are all very cool and I encourage you to check them out but none of them has yet inspired me... More»
  • Jun. 20, 2011 | 14:41 PDT | 21:41 UTC
    Cassini finally catches Helene
    The Cassini team has had a wretched time trying to get pictures of Helene in the past, but their streak of bad luck is over. Helene is one of the four "co-orbital" moons in the Saturn system, which occupy metastable spots in the leading and... More»
  • Jun. 20, 2011 | 13:53 PDT | 20:53 UTC
    Update: Phobos and Jupiter and its moons!
    Remember that neat picture and movie of Phobos passing by Jupiter that I posted last week? Several people asked me where Jupiter's moons were, and I just assumed that they weren't visible. I was wrong; Mars Express spotted Jupiter's moons along... More»
  • Jun. 17, 2011 | 17:55 PDT | Jun. 18 00:55 UTC
    Vesta, now better than Hubble!
    Closer and closer! Vesta is still fuzzy, but as Dawn inexorably draws closer it's beginning to come into focus. The view is now better than anything Hubble has ever returned to Earth. This is the beginning of our exploration of previously... More»
  • Jun. 17, 2011 | 07:27 PDT | 14:27 UTC
    Watching Phobos pass by Jupiter
    Check out an update on this post, in which Jupiter's moons can be spotted near the planet. --ESL OK, one cool video deserves another this Friday! Here is a really cool view of Phobos in the foreground with gigantic (but very distant) Jupiter... More»
  • Jun. 17, 2011 | 07:02 PDT | 14:02 UTC
    How to Wrap a Mars Rover
    It's not easy to wrap a ginormous rover for shipping (it's evidently harder than wrapping a cat). I was glued to the feed from the Curiosity Cam all day yesterday, as they prepared Curiosity for shipping to Kennedy Space Center. Here's a... More»