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The Planetary Society Blog
Archive
Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.
May. 2, 2011 | 09:26 PDT | 16:26 UTC
The scale of our solar system
Space.com has taken advantage of the infinitely scrollable nature of Web pages to produce a really cool infographic on the scales of orbital distances in the solar system. The only thing I'd add to it is Sedna, whose current position at about 90 AU... More»
Apr. 29, 2011 | 14:02 PDT | 21:02 UTC
Shuttle LIFE is go for launch with Endeavour!
The Planetary Society's Bruce Betts traveled to Florida to oversee the preparation of our Shuttle LIFE experiment for launch on the space shuttle Endeavour. He was hoping to watch the launch, too, but the launch was postponed until at least Monday,... More»
Apr. 28, 2011 | 16:07 PDT | 23:07 UTC
What's up in the solar system in May 2011
Time again for my monthly look at what's going on with the robots exploring the solar system! The highlight of this month will, I think, be Dawn's first optical navigation images of its first target, Vesta. For this month Dawn will still be too... More»
Apr. 28, 2011 | 11:15 PDT | 18:15 UTC
Watch Saturn's storms spin with VIMS
A lot of attention has been paid recently to a storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere that is large and bright enough to be visible from Earth, but Saturn's atmosphere actually features lots more swirling storms. They can be hard to see, at least in... More»
Apr. 27, 2011 | 11:03 PDT | 18:03 UTC
The Moon is a KREEPy place
If you go to a conference about lunar geology, sooner or later you'll hear the term "KREEP" bandied about. (And almost as soon as KREEP is mentioned, a bad pun will be made. It's inevitable.) Context will tell you it has something to do with a... More»
Apr. 26, 2011 | 15:56 PDT | 22:56 UTC
Place names on Lutetia
Whenever we explore someplace new -- a new island, a new continent, a new cave, a new world -- there's a necessary activity that explorers must perform before they can sensibly tell the world about their discoveries: name things. Instead of... More»
Apr. 26, 2011 | 12:05 PDT | 19:05 UTC
Shuttle Endeavour Final Launch set for April 29
by Ken Kremer
Space Shuttle Endeavour is just a few days from embarking on her 25th and final mission to space. Endeavour sits majestically atop Launch Pad 39 A at the Kennedy Space Center awaiting blastoff, slated for 3:47 p.m on Friday, April... More»
Apr. 25, 2011 | 10:22 PDT | 17:22 UTC
India's launch site as seen by Japan's Daichi orbiter, now lost
I wrote the following blog entry about an image from Japan's Daichi Earth-observing orbiter last week as one to keep in my back pocket for a day when I was too busy to write, not anticipating that there'd soon be a more pressing reason to write... More»
Apr. 22, 2011 | 12:30 PDT | 19:30 UTC
Happy Earth Day!
by Bill Nye
This important day goes back 41 years. I celebrated the first one on the National Mall. I grew up in Washington, DC (within the city limits). I rode my bicycle down to the Earth Day event wearing a sign that read “Pedals... More»
Apr. 21, 2011 | 20:27 PDT | Apr. 22 03:27 UTC
Pluto's atmosphere changes really fast!
Pluto's atmosphere has been a subject of fascination for planetary astronomers since -- well, since astronomers first discovered that it had an atmosphere in the early '90s. The interest is partly because it's fascinating that such a distant and... More»
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