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The Planetary Society Blog
Archive
Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.
Oct. 16, 2007 | 14:21 PDT | 21:21 UTC
Morning drizzle on Titan
A press release issued by the European Southern Observatory on Friday described "a widespread and persistent morning drizzle of methane over the western foothills of Titan's major continent, Xanadu." The release was titled "Take an umbrella if you... More»
Oct. 15, 2007 | 21:53 PDT | Oct. 16 04:53 UTC
Chang'e 1 launching October 22-25
EDIT: Another update: The launch time has been formally announced as October 24, 2007 at 10:05 UTC (03:05 PDT).
Wang Chun just sent me another email pointing me to a Chinese news story that announces that Chang'e 1 is launching in a week! The... More»
Oct. 15, 2007 | 09:39 PDT | 16:39 UTC
Anticipating the launch of Chang'e 1
It appears likely that, within two weeks, China will be following Japan to the Moon with the launch of Chang'e 1. The official launch date has not yet been announced, but the Chinese government is now selling tickets to a public viewing. I've been... More»
Oct. 12, 2007 | 17:01 PDT | Oct. 13 00:01 UTC
Milestones this week for Cassini and Spirit
Press releases have been going out from NASA and ESA today, marking the 10th anniversary of the launch of Cassini-Huygens, October 15, 1997. From launch it took the spacecraft nearly seven years to get to Saturn, arriving on July 1, 2004. For... More»
Oct. 12, 2007 | 13:15 PDT | 20:15 UTC
Kaguya: both mini-satellites deployed and renamed
JAXA announced today the successful deployment of the second of Kaguya's two mini-satellites. And, in what seems to be a traditional act of the Japanese space program following the "launch" of a spacecraft, they have given "nicknames" of... More»
Oct. 11, 2007 | 16:16 PDT | 23:16 UTC
DPS: What's next with NEO searches
On Monday afternoon I went to a few of the sessions describing next steps in our efforts to locate all of the asteroids and comets that could possibly harm Earth, the near-Earth objects. Lindley Johnson, from NASA Headquarters, presented on "The... More»
Oct. 11, 2007 | 12:22 PDT | 19:22 UTC
DPS: NASA Night: Sweetness and light
On Tuesday night, after the poster session had ended (and, not incidentally, after all the meeting attendees had had their chances to get their two free drinks), was the traditional "NASA Night," an event that I viewed with trepidation. At the... More»
Oct. 11, 2007 | 10:32 PDT | 17:32 UTC
News flash: Lakes at Titan's south pole, too, on top of the land of lakes in the north
This morning the RADAR team released the following image, from the "T36" flyby on October 2, 2007:Click to enlarge >Lakes at Titan's south poleCassini's RADAR instrument acquired its first swath across the southern polar region on October 2, 2007,... More»
Oct. 10, 2007 | 14:43 PDT | 21:43 UTC
DPS: The Yarkovsky, O'Keefe, Radzievskii, and Paddack (YORP) effect
On Monday at the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Orlando there was an entire oral session devoted to YORP, which stands for Yarkovsky, O'Keefe, Radzievskii, and Paddack, all of whom studied the effects of solar radiation pressure on small... More»
Oct. 10, 2007 | 12:40 PDT | 19:40 UTC
DPS: New stuff from New Horizons at Jupiter
I'm already on my way home from the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Orlando, which will continue there for the rest of this week. Overall, it was not quite as exciting as some of the previous DPS meetings I've been to. Most of the... More»
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