Blog Archive
Planetary Radio: A Dawn MIssion Update
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/11/20 12:36 CST
A Planetary Radio status report from the Dawn mission's Marc Rayman, accompanied by a fascinating video tour of Marc's at-home collection of space information and memorabilia.
Dawn Vesta Data is publicly available (for real this time!)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/16 07:08 CST | 2 comments
After a false start earlier this year, the first chunk of Dawn Framing Camera data from Vesta has finally made it to the Planetary Data System. As a first step to understanding the data set, I've built some index pages to these cool images.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/24 01:14 CDT | 7 comments
Continuing my writeup of notes from last week's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting: presentations on the risks of future asteroid impacts. How much risk do we face, and what are the appropriate actions to take in the face of that risk?
DPS 2012, Day 5: How to make asteroids crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/19 07:53 CDT | 2 comments
A summary of just one talk from the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting, by Lindy Elkins-Tanton, which provided a neat explanation for how asteroids can be melted and layered on the inside yet have a primitive-looking exterior.
Deep Impact targets possible 2020 asteroid flyby
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/05 12:28 CDT | 3 comments
Yesterday, Deep Impact performed a trajectory correction maneuver, firing its thrusters to line up for a flyby seven years from now. Here's a preview of that encounter.
Shoemaker NEO Winner Finds Close Fly By Asteroid
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/10/02 05:54 CDT
Gary Hug used his Shoemaker NEO grant provided camera to find 2012 SY49 which flew by Earth at about two lunar distances last week. The tens of meters wide asteroid is a low-probability possible Earth impactor in the future.











