Blog Archive
Comet to whiz past Mars in October 2014
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/27 05:36 CST | 17 comments
A recently discovered comet, C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), is going to be passing very close to Mars on October 19, 2014. Does it pose a risk to spacecraft?
Webcast Tonight! Planetary Scientist and Society President Jim Bell
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/02/20 07:59 CST
Professor Bell's topic is "Exploring Mars, the Moon, Asteroids, and Comets with Rovers and Landers," and there is no one better to talk about this subject.
Venerable Deep Impact spacecraft has photographed comet ISON
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/05 05:24 CST | 6 comments
Deep Impact has made the first space-based observations of comet ISON.
My ever-popular asteroids-and-comets montage, now in color, with bonus Toutatis
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/12/18 04:26 CST | 9 comments
My collage of all the asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft is probably the single most popular image I have ever posted on this blog. I've now updated it to be in color and to include Toutatis.
Comet ISON: 30% chance of awesome, 60% chance of that being wrong
Posted by Bill Gray on 2012/09/25 12:15 CDT | 10 comments
A very interesting comet has recently been discovered -- interesting because it will nearly graze the Sun in August 2013 and then approach Earth closely the following December. Whether it will turn out to be a great comet is impossible to know.
Hunting Asteroids from a Field in Kansas
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/06/15 06:33 CDT
TPS Shoemaker NEO Grant Winner Gary Hug hunts near Earth objects from his back yard in Kansas. NPR's Morning Edition picked up on this fascinating story.











