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Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/07/05 12:01 CDT
As astronaut Don Pettit prepared for his return to Earth, he tweeted several beautiful shots from the Space Station.
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/07/03 04:04 CDT | 2 comments
Talk about changing climates on this world and others brought 600 people to the Boulder Theater.
A solar eclipse - as viewed from the Moon
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/05/28 11:19 CDT | 3 comments
A solar eclipse isn't just a spiffy sight to Earthlings; it looks pretty cool to lunar dwellers as well.
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.
More Evidence for Impact Origin for Colombia’s Vichada Structure
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/05/08 03:43 CDT
Evidence continues to pile up that the Rio Vichada structure in Colombia is indeed the largest impact structure in South America.
Examining India's new RISAT 1 Earth observation satellite
Posted by Jason Davis on 2012/05/02 12:03 CDT | 1 comments
Last week, India launched RISAT 1, a new Earth-observing satellite. How does its synthetic aperture radar compare to that of Envisat, which has fallen silent?
Guest Post: Neil Stewart: Big Bend designated International Dark Sky Park
Posted by Neil Patrick Stewart on 2012/02/16 02:17 CST
Last week, I received a�press release�with the headline "Big Bend National Park Designated As International Dark Sky Park." I asked my brother Neil to write something about this announcement for me.�
Parallel planetary processes create semantic headaches
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/01/26 03:55 CST
I ran into a semantic problem today: what to call the science of studying liquids on Titan?
The state of Earth observation, January 2012
Posted by Jason Davis on 2012/01/09 05:54 CST
As of November 2011, the Earth Observing Handbook counts 109 active missions to study the Earth as a planet, with 112 more approved and planned for the future. Jason Davis provides an overview of key current and upcoming earth-observing missions.
The 70-meter dishes of the Deep Space Network
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/11/28 05:06 CST
I was inspired by my recent trip to Goldstone to put together this poster showing all three of the great 70-meter dishes of the Deep Space Network. There's one at each of the three complexes, at Goldstone, at Robledo (near Madrid, Spain), and at Tidbinbilla (near Canberra, Australia).
Earth science's next big thing
Posted by Jason Davis on 2011/09/22 11:27 CDT
Meet the next big thing in NASA's mission to study planet Earth: NPP, the NPOESS Preparatory Project satellite.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/09/19 12:46 CDT
Video: Soaring over Earth
Pretty picture: Earth and Moon from JunoCam
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/08/30 11:53 CDT
Pretty picture: Earth and Moon from JunoCam
NASA thinks Earth is a planet, too
Posted by Jason Davis on 2011/08/08 11:58 CDT
Although much of the publicity NASA receives focuses on planetary exploration, Earth observing satellites like Aqua keep tabs on our home planet's weather and climate.
Citizen Science projects for Planetary Science: Get Involved! Do Science!
Posted by Mike Malaska on 2011/05/12 05:13 CDT
Citizen Science projects let volunteers easily contribute to active science programs. They're useful when there is so much data it overwhelms computing algorithms (if they exist) or the scientific research team attempting to process it.
Familiar yet alien ancient views of Earth
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/05/04 01:29 CDT
I have always found maps of the motions of Earth's continents fascinating, so it is really cool to see some gorgeous new reconstructions of what Earth would have looked like to spaceborne observers over the last 750 million years.
Memo to early risers: Look up!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/05/02 11:46 CDT
There is a traffic jam of planets on the eastern horizon in the early morning right now and for the next several weeks, a prize for those of you who have to rise before dawn.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/05/02 11:26 CDT
Space.com has taken advantage of the infinitely scrollable nature of Web pages to produce a really cool infographic on the scales of orbital distances in the solar system.
India's launch site as seen by Japan's Daichi orbiter, now lost
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/25 12:22 CDT
I wrote the following blog entry about an image from Japan's Daichi Earth-observing orbiter last week as one to keep in my back pocket for a day when I was too busy to write, not anticipating that there'd soon be a more pressing reason to write about Daichi. On April 21, after just over five years of orbital operations, Daichi unexpectedly fell silent, and is probably lost forever.
Are there more Titans than Earths in the Milky Way?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/14 11:30 CDT
Might there be many Titan-like planets and moons, with atmospheres and liquid methane rain, rivers, and lakes, across the galaxy? It's an important question if you think that liquid methane environments could support alien life, because it turns out that Titan-like planets might be more common than Earth-like planets.
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