Blog Archive
Pluto's atmosphere does not collapse
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/06 11:07 CDT | 1 comments
Just four months ago I posted about a paper recently published by Leslie Young and coauthors that described three possible scenarios for Pluto's atmosphere. Yesterday, Cathy Olkin, Leslie Young, and coauthors posted a preprint on arXiv that says that only one of those scenarios can be true. And it's a surprising one. The title of their paper says it all: "Pluto's atmosphere does not collapse."
Results of ten Venus years of cloud tracking by Venus Express
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/29 10:55 CDT | 4 comments
What Venus Express' Visual Monitoring Camera images of Venus have taught us about the motions of Venus' atmosphere.
The Ancient Snows of Mars on Planetary Radio
Grad student Kat Scanlon leads research indicating precipitation may have helped shape the surface of the red planet
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/08/06 10:20 CDT
Kat Scanlon tells Planetary Radio that Hawaii and Mars have more in common than you might think.
More Evidence for a Habitable Mars from EGU 2013
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/04/08 06:36 CDT | 3 comments
NASA's Curiosity rover has acquired further evidence that Mars's atmosphere was once dense enough to support liquid water on the surface.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/03/04 12:25 CST | 2 comments
Look past the rings, and Saturn is even stranger--and more breathtaking.
Saturn's Hexagon Viewed from the Ground
Posted by Leigh Fletcher on 2013/02/01 05:49 CST | 2 comments
For the first time, amateur astronomers are capturing spectacular images of Saturn's bizarre north polar hexagon.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/01/28 10:00 CST | 5 comments
Just like on Earth, clouds and storms often ripple through the Martian atmosphere. You can even check the daily weather report.
That amazing image of Saturn's north pole just got better: now, it moves!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/28 11:27 CST | 2 comments
Remember the amazing photo of Saturn's north pole that I posted yesterday? Now, thanks to an amateur image processor, it moves, and the motions of the individual clouds within the belts are mesmerizing.
Staring into Saturn's baleful eye
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/27 11:12 CST | 12 comments
Amazing photos have just come back from Cassini, of swirling clouds surrounding Saturn's north pole.
Curiosity, Endeavour, and Bill Nye on Your Phone
All these and more on this week's Planetary Radio
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/11/07 10:31 CST
This week's Planetary Radio episode presents highlights of the first Curiosity press briefing about the Martian atmosphere, and then takes you to the opening day ceremony for Shuttle Endeavour. You have till Friday, November 9, at 10am Pacific to send your 10th anniversary message to the show and possibly win Bill Nye on your answering machine.
DPS 2012: The most detailed images of Uranus' atmosphere ever
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/22 04:14 CDT | 3 comments
New ground-based images of Uranus show more finely detailed structure than any photos I have ever seen.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/22 05:42 CDT | 5 comments
New Hubble photos show that Uranus has both dark and bright spots!
Full Free Intro Astronomy Class Now Online
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/05/22 02:57 CDT | 1 comments
Bruce Betts' complete CSUDH Intro Astronomy and Planetary Science class is now available online. Find out how to access it, and go behind the scenes.
Checking up on Jupiter and Saturn
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/10 01:51 CST
It's amateur astronomers, not professionals, who are shouldering the burden of constant monitoring of the weather on Jupiter and Saturn. What's going on these days in the outer solar system?�
Earth observing satellites record large Arctic ozone loss
Posted by Jason Davis on 2011/10/14 06:31 CDT
Data from Earth observing satellites Aura and CALIPSO have shown record losses of seasonal ozone in the Arctic.
Notes from Day 5 of the EPSC/DPS meeting: Saturn's storm, Phobos, and Lutetia
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/10/07 07:09 CDT
Notes from Day 5 of the EPSC/DPS meeting: Saturn's storm, Phobos, and Lutetia
New Horizons Day 2: Liquids on Pluto's surface?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/09/13 01:27 CDT
Jeff Moore's presentation was cool because of the discussion it stimulated. He considered what exogenic processes might be operating on Pluto's surface. What's an exogenic process? It's something that modifies the shape of the surface from the outside, and doesn't require the body to be geologically active inside.
New Horizons workshop, day 1: Chemistry & climate on Pluto & other cold places
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/08/30 11:27 CDT
Today and tomorrow I'm attending the New Horizons Workshop on Icy Surface Processes. The first day was all about the composition of the surface and atmosphere of Pluto, Charon, Triton, and other distant places.
The Making of Martian Clouds in Motion: Part 2, tweening the animation
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/08/28 06:14 CDT
The Making of Martian Clouds in Motion: Part 2, tweening the animation
The Making of Martian Clouds in Motion: Part 1, working with Mars Express HRSC data
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/08/22 08:39 CDT
The Making of Martian Clouds in Motion: Part 1, working with Mars Express HRSC data
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