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The Planetary Society Blog

Archive

Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.


  • Feb. 4, 2011 | 10:41 PST | 18:41 UTC
    Mars conjunction today: Cool SOHO/SDO video
    Today Mars made its closest approach to the Sun -- as seen from Earth, that is. Why is this important? Do a Google search on "Mars solar conjunction" and nearly all the results you'll get will be astrology-related, but Mars' solar conjunction is... More»
  • Feb. 4, 2011 | 07:15 PST | 15:15 UTC
    Rosetta update: Scary safe mode, but all's well now
    The Rosetta blog has been strangely quiet of late, after they had been quite actively posting updates on the status of Rosetta during a critical series of orbit adjustment burns, which I wrote about two weeks ago. The total velocity change that... More»
  • Feb. 3, 2011 | 12:47 PST | 20:47 UTC
    What's up in the solar system in February 2011
    Welcome to my monthly roundup of what's happening with our deep-space explorers across the solar system. I apologize for its lateness; two sick kids have drastically affected my productivity this week, but they're better and now I'm getting back to... More»
  • Feb. 3, 2011 | 11:10 PST | 19:10 UTC
    Dawn Journal: ORT ORT ORT
    Here's our monthly checkup with the Dawn mission, contributed by Marc Rayman, the mission's Project System Engineer. Thanks as usual to Marc! --ESLClick to enlarge >Marc RaymanBy Marc Rayman Dear Providawntial Readers, Dawn continues its flight... More»
  • Feb. 2, 2011 | 11:26 PST | 19:26 UTC
    Kepler announcement today: More than a thousand exoplanets including one 6-planet system
    I wasn't able to watch the Kepler press briefing today so I will give you links to some of my favorite blogs for information on today's announcement, which follows a major data release last night as well as the publication of a paper in Nature. The... More»
  • Feb. 1, 2011 | 23:12 PST | Feb. 2 07:12 UTC
    My day with Hawking and Aldrin
    by Louis D. Friedman I was very fortunate to be able to meet with Stephen Hawking and Buzz Aldrin over lunch at Hawking's temporary home in Pasadena this week. We got together to discuss views on the future of human space exploration -- a subject... More»
  • Feb. 1, 2011 | 21:03 PST | Feb. 2 05:03 UTC
    Stardust update: trajectory correction successful
    Now that Stardust has images of its target comet to work with, the mission was able to figure out their relative positions more precisely, and they've gone ahead with an important rocket firing that shifts the spacecraft's aimpoint past the comet... More»
  • Feb. 1, 2011 | 20:44 PST | Feb. 2 04:44 UTC
    Stardust Contest: "Are We There Yet?"
    There's a new Planetary Society contest: "Are We There Yet? -- Measuring Stardust's Cosmic Journey." How far do you think Stardust will have traveled to get to Tempel 1? Guess here and get a chance to win a cool T-shirt! I'm excited to offer this... More»
  • Jan. 31, 2011 | 14:14 PST | 22:14 UTC
    Io and Jupiter from Voyager 1
    Here's an image I've been meaning to post for months, a new mosaic from Voyager 1 by Ted Stryk. Voyager 1 watched Io cross Jupiter's terminator as it neared closest approach:Click to enlarge >Io and Jupiter from Voyager 1Voyager 1 captured this... More»
  • Jan. 28, 2011 | 20:21 PST | Jan. 29 04:21 UTC
    Uranus and Challenger
    In the past week have been 25th anniversaries of two events in 1986, one great, one terrible: the closest approach of Voyager 2 to Uranus on January 24, and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger upon liftoff on January 28. It was just... More»