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The Planetary Society Weblog
Archive
Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.
Dec. 22, 2006 | 10:12 PST | 18:12 UTC
CIRS gets another view of Enceladus' south polar hot spot
There's a new image product released from the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) on Cassini, an instrument that is capable of measuring the temperatures on the extremely cold surfaces of Saturn's moons and rings, which takes another look at the... More»
Dec. 21, 2006 | 09:15 PST | 17:15 UTC
Possible dry plumes on Enceladus
Last week there was a paper published in Science magazine proposing a novel mechanism to explain the spectacular fountains erupting from the south pole of Enceladus: "A Clathrate Reservoir Hypothesis for Enceladus' South Polar Plume." First, a... More»
Dec. 19, 2006 | 19:38 PST | Dec. 20 03:38 UTC
In memory of Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan passed away 10 years ago December 20. He was, of course, one of the three founders of The Planetary Society, and his legacy looms large in our organization. I only knew him through the Cosmos series on public TV, which I've talked about... More»
Dec. 19, 2006 | 14:28 PST | 22:28 UTC
Saturn from above
Ever since I first read about the plans for Cassini's tour of the Saturn system I've been looking forward to the current phase of the mission. Why? Because Cassini's orbit is taking it to a viewpoint on Saturn that's never been achieved before. ... More»
Dec. 19, 2006 | 09:37 PST | 17:37 UTC
Second try: Venus Express sees the merry glow of Venus' surface
It turns out I had several mistakes in my previous post on the Venus Express image of temperatures from the surface, too many to correct, so I've wiped the previous post and am trying again here. Sorry for the confusion!
Last week ESA released an... More»
Dec. 18, 2006 | 14:02 PST | 22:02 UTC
Nifty animation of Phoenix's Entry, Descent, and Landing
There is now an animation posted on the Phoenix website showing the little lander's Entry, Descent, and Landing (typically abbreviated "EDL" by acronym-happy engineers). The animation was produced by Dan Maas, the same fellow who wowed us all with... More»
Dec. 15, 2006 | 14:18 PST | 22:18 UTC
Breaking a tie on the Cassini science teams
This week's Cassini Project Update was particularly interesting, because it contained a story about how a difficult decision was made regarding the prioritizing of different science teams' desires for an upcoming Titan flyby.Two competing candidate... More»
Dec. 14, 2006 | 17:12 PST | Dec. 15 01:12 UTC
Looking for a cheap gift that will last forever?
...or, if not forever, longer, at least, than the recipient? Look no farther than the Phoenix DVD. You can send your friends and relatives a pretty little certificate with the holiday cards that you may be rushing out the door over the next couple... More»
Dec. 14, 2006 | 14:13 PST | 22:13 UTC
Opportunity's morning and afternoon views of Cape Verde
Among the pile of Mars-related image releases from the American Geophysical Union meeting yesterday were these two from Opportunity. They are two views of exactly the same place captured at different times of day.Click to enlarge >Late morning view... More»
Dec. 14, 2006 | 09:51 PST | 17:51 UTC
Save Earth, tag an asteroid?
The Planetary Society has a new competition out for those of you who think you could design a better space mission. At present, our planet doesn't have good plans in place for what actions to take should we discover a near-Earth asteroid on a... More»
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