Blogs
Blog Archive
Opportunity's rocky road ahead, good news for an aging rover
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/09/15 04:38 CDT
What a difference a couple of months of driving make. Here's the sort of view of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's road ahead that I'm accustomed to, taken two months ago.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/08/25 12:36 CDT
Rover fans have been excitedly watching the hills on Opportunity's horizon grow taller and taller as Opportunity rolls toward its destination, Endeavour crater.
Posted by Jason Perry on 2010/08/20 05:15 CDT
Thanks to its active volcanic activity and sulfur-rich surface, Io is one of the most colorful worlds yet seen in the Solar System, save the Earth of course
Titan and Dione: The same, but different
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/04/22 05:29 CDT
Here's a new lovely color composition of Titan and Dione captured by Cassini. This one was taken on April 20, 2010; a set of 15 raw images taken of the two moons just showed up on the Cassini raw images website.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/04/19 03:35 CDT
Usually I like Mondays, but today I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. When I get overwhelmed, I look at pictures from Cassini.
Opportunity's at the twin craters
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/03/27 05:09 CDT
Just a little update here to post a Navcam panorama from Opportunity showing that the rover successfully arrived yesterday at the doublet crater she's been aiming for since she left Concepcion a couple of weeks ago.
Pretty picture: Opportunity around Concepcion
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/02/09 10:32 CST
Here's a neat picture from Opportunity, a panorama composed of its wide-angle, mast-mounted Navcam cameras, showing the crater Concepcion.
Mars Express animation of Phobos' shadow transiting Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/02/02 12:08 CST
For the first time ever, Mars Express' Visual Monitoring Camera has imaged the shadow of Mars' moon Phobos crossing the surface of Mars.
A pretty picture of Concepcion crater
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/02/01 10:37 CST
It looks like the rover team thinks Concepcion is pretty enough (in both aesthetic and a scientific senses) to be worthy of the full-color Pancam panorama treatment; color frames started arriving on Earth over the weekend.
Posted by Ryan Anderson on 2010/01/28 03:35 CST
Check out these awesome flyovers of Mars, generated by Doug Ellison of UnmannedSpaceflight!
Cassini Aegaeon and Prometheus awesomeness
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/28 12:38 CST
There were many, many treats waiting on the Cassini raw images website this morning. Yesterday, Cassini traversed the G ring, taking photos all the way.
Figuring out the shape of Mars (and other places)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/19 01:31 CST
An amateur named Bernhard Braun ("nirgal" on unmannedspaceflight) has been posting the results from a new piece of software he's developed that generates 3-D models of landscapes from single photos.
Highlights from the January 1, 2010 Cassini imaging data release
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/13 03:43 CST
The January 1, 2010 Cassini imaging data release includes everything acquired by Cassini from January 1 to March 30, 2009 in all its high-quality glory.
Odyssey's going to start listening for Phoenix
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/11 05:26 CST
Odyssey's going to start listening for Phoenix
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/11 02:01 CST
This description of asteroid 2867 Steins is based upon an article published in the January 8, 2010 issue of Science by H. Uwe Keller and numerous coauthors and on a related press release.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2010/01/08 01:08 CST
It's been two months, now, that extrication efforts have been going on. It's discouraging that the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit isn't out of the trap.
Cassini VIMS sees the long-awaited glint off a Titan lake
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/12/17 04:28 CST
The Cassini mission announced today the first observation of a specular reflection off of a lake on Titan. A specular reflection is a mirror-like flash, and you only get one when you have a mirror-like surface -- very, very smooth.
A teeny weeny bit of movement in Spirit's right front wheel
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/12/14 01:12 CST
The ever-vigilant Doug Ellison just posted this animation, which really actually does show a teeny tiny bit of motion in the right front wheel. If you don't notice any motion, look closer.
Awesome Mars Express view of Phobos and Deimos together
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/12/11 11:24 CST
My inbox was exploding this morning with messages about a tremendously cool animation released this morning by ESA's Mars Express team. It shows Phobos crossing Deimos, in what's known as a "mutual event."
Spectacular animation of Halley's comet
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2009/11/26 09:11 CST
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