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Blog Archive
Planetary Geomorphology Image of the Month: Water tracks on Earth and Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/18 09:57 CDT | 3 comments
The International Association of Geomorphologists' "planetary geomorphology image of the month," contributed by Joe Levy, features water tracks on Earth and compares them to recurring slope lineae on Mars.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/27 10:55 CDT | 9 comments
It had never occurred to me to think about geostationary satellites in Mars orbit before reading a new paper by Juan Silva and Pilar Romero. The paper shows that it takes a lot more work to maintain a stationary orbit at an arbitrary longitude at Mars than it does at Earth.
How radar really works: The steps involved before getting an image
Posted by Alessondra Springmann on 2013/06/24 02:10 CDT | 3 comments
Arecibo Observatory is known for its 1000-foot diameter telescope and its appearances in Goldeneye and Contact. Aside from battling Bond villains and driving red diesel Jeeps around the telescope (grousing at the site director about the funding status of projects is optional), several hundred hours a year of telescope time at Arecibo go toward radar studies of asteroids.
How radar tracking of asteroids helps us know where they are
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/23 11:32 CDT | 5 comments
A serendipitous observation of tiny rocks in Jupiter's orbit by Galileo
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/17 09:54 CDT | 3 comments
A look at an older paper describing Galileo's possible sighting of individual ring particles orbiting Jupiter as companions to its inner moon Amalthea.
Posted by Sarah Hörst on 2013/05/15 11:55 CDT | 12 comments
A tale from the scientific trenches: laboratory work to simulate Titan's rich atmosphere.
Planetary Society Hangout: A Day in the Life of the Opportunity Rover with Emily Dean
Thursday, May 9, at noon PDT/1900h UTC
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/05/09 02:20 CDT | 1 comments
Thursday, May 9th, at noon PDT/3pm EDT/1900h UTC, we are joined by Emily Dean, who works on the camera team for the Opportunity rover on Mars.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/02 07:00 CDT | 2 comments
Note the special time! In this week's Planetary Society hangout at 5pm PDT / midnight UTC, I'll talk with MESSENGER deputy principal investigator Larry Nittler about what MESSENGER has accomplished in its prime and extended missions at Mercury, and what it stands to do if awarded a mission extension.
Pluto's seasons and what New Horizons may find when it passes by
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/02 03:42 CDT | 5 comments
New Horizons might see a Pluto with a northern polar cap, a southern polar cap, or both caps, according to work by Leslie Young.
2011 HM₁₀₂: A new companion for Neptune
Posted by Alex Parker on 2013/04/30 04:20 CDT | 2 comments
This month my latest paper made it to print in the Astronomical Journal. It's a short piece that describes a serendipitous discovery that my collaborators and I made while searching for a distant Kuiper Belt Object for the New Horizons spacecraft to visit after its 2015 Pluto flyby.
An Amazing Evening for Planetary Defense
Join us via Planetary Radio and complete video coverage.
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/04/23 07:12 CDT | 1 comments
Bill Nye, Bruce Betts, Mat Kaplan, Meteorite Man Geoffrey Notkin and stars of planetary science at the Planetary Defense Conference public event in Flagstaff.
Tides of light and ice: Water and rock made from snowmelt on Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/17 01:29 CDT | 4 comments
A recently published paper proposes that much of the sedimentary rock on Mars formed during rare, brief periods of very slight wetness under melting snow.
Planetary Society Weekly Hangout: Programming in the Sciences
Thursday, Apr 4th at noon PDT/1900 UTC
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/04/03 02:30 CDT
Thursday, Apr 4th at noon PDT/1900 UTC we continue our weekly Live Hangouts. Join us this week with Chase Million, founder of Million Concepts, a company devoted to providing high-quality code to scientists.
LPSC 2013: Seeing in Permanent Shadow
Posted by Michael Poston on 2013/04/03 01:21 CDT | 1 comments
The case for water ice hidden in permanently shadowed regions at the north pole of the planet Mercury received another boost recently. On Wednesday March 20, 2013 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Nancy Chabot presented the very first visible-light images of what is in the shadows of these polar craters.
LPSC 2013: watery Martian minerals
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/03/28 12:26 CDT | 3 comments
Some interesting results from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on clay minerals on Mars and what they might mean about ancient water.
LPSC 2013: License to Chill (or, the solar system's icy moons)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/03/27 11:52 CDT
Reports from the March 19 session at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference covering eight icy moons in the outer solar system: Ganymede, Europa, Dione, Rhea, Mimas, Tethys, Enceladus, and Miranda.
LPSC 2013: The Smaller They Are, The Better They Shake
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/03/25 08:04 CDT | 1 comments
Really cool movies from Jim Richardson propose to explain how the same physics of impact cratering can produce such differently-appearing surfaces as those of the Moon, large asteroids like Eros, and teeny ones like Itokawa.
LPSC 2013: Do we have a meteorite from Mercury?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/03/21 06:14 CDT | 7 comments
Before yesterday, my answer to this question would be "no." Now my answer is "probably." But it's not clear if we know which of the meteorites in our collections is from the innermost planet.
LPSC 2013: Sedimentary stratigraphy with Curiosity and Opportunity
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/03/20 04:19 CDT | 4 comments
A mind-boggling quantity of information is being presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. In my first report from the meeting, I try to make sense of the Curiosity and Opportunity sessions.
Comet PANSTARRS from the other side of the Sun!
Posted by Karl Battams on 2013/03/14 05:21 CDT | 8 comments
Comet PANSTARRS is delighting northern hemisphere viewers right now. But it's also big, bright, and beautiful to the STEREO spacecraft.
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