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What's up in planetary missions in 2014
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/12/31 01:15 CST | 4 comments
With the New Year upon us, what can we look forward to in 2014? For me, the main event of 2014 is that ESA's Rosetta mission finally -- finally! -- catches up to the comet it has been chasing for a decade. We will lose LADEE, gain two Mars orbiters, and launch Hayabusa2. The year begins with an amazing 24 spacecraft exploring or cruising toward various planetary destinations.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/12/09 10:58 CST | 3 comments
Two grand canyons fill with fog, one on Earth and one on Mars.
Mars' chemical history: Phyllosian, Theiikian, Siderikian, oh my
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/12/05 01:08 CST | 4 comments
I'm returning to the deep dive into the literature that began with articles about lunar basins and then explored the geologic time scales of Earth, Moon, and Mars. Now it's time to catch up to the last decade of Mars research and learn what "phyllosian", "theiikian", and "siderikian" eras are.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/11/20 05:24 CST | 2 comments
The polar plains, charted in unprecedented detail.
Noachian, Hesperian, and Amazonian, oh my! --Mars' Geologic Time Scale
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/25 04:32 CDT | 3 comments
The Martian Geologic Time Scale is a lot more complicated than the Moon's.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter achieves imaging of comet ISON from Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/02 12:03 CDT | 2 comments
Yesterday, the much-anticipated comet ISON made its closest pass by Mars. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera is the first to achieve a positive detection of the somewhat-fainter-than-expected comet in its photos.
Interplanetary eyes on the lookout for comet ISON
Posted by Daniel Fischer on 2013/08/09 02:15 CDT
Space blogger Daniel Fischer provides a preview of the exciting interplanetary observing campaign that has recently begun to study comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) from vantage points across the solar system.
Mysterious tides in the Martian atmosphere
Posted by Armin Kleinboehl on 2013/08/07 03:49 CDT | 1 comments
Observations made by the Mars Climate Sounder, an instrument aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, have revealed new information about atmospheric tides on the Red Planet.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/07/29 01:18 CDT | 4 comments
Pushing back the frontier, and filling in the blank spaces on the map.
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.
A new HiRISE view of Opportunity (sol 3361)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/17 06:14 CDT
The HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has snapped a lovely color photo of the rim of Endeavour crater, catching Opportunity midway between Nobby's Head and Solander Point.
Posted by Ralph Lorenz on 2013/07/17 01:13 CDT
The fictional world Tatooine, scene of action in the Star Wars movies, is named after a town in Tunisia, where parts of the movies were filmed. The desert backdrops against which the movies were filmed are real terrestrial landscapes, which prove to be perhaps unexpectedly dynamic.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/07/07 10:24 CDT | 9 comments
The south polar cap of Mars is riddled with strange landscapes.
Enormously detailed photo of Kasei Valles from Mars Express
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/19 02:36 CDT | 7 comments
ESA celebrated the tenth anniversary of Mars Express' launch with a several-day science meeting during which they issued lots of press releases and numerous spectacular photos. My favorite of them all is this enormous image of Kasei Valles on Mars.
Many More Colors than Red: Exploring Mars with Spectroscopy
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/05/20 01:31 CDT | 6 comments
Mars gives up its secrets through the unseen colors of its rocks.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/04/21 03:07 CDT | 6 comments
Mars and Earth share a truly striking family resemblance, but there's no mistaking which one is home.
Russia's Mars 3 lander maybe found by Russian amateurs
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/12 01:22 CDT | 4 comments
Виталий Егоров (Vitaliy Egorov) is a Russian space enthusiast who enlisted help of fellow enthusiasts to search for -- and maybe find -- the Russian Mars 3 hardware on the Martian surface. Here he explains how he did it.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/04/08 09:12 CDT | 4 comments
Dispatches from five different worlds--all sent by robotic spacecraft on the same day.
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.
A new rover self-portrait and a new color image of Curiosity from orbit
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/04 05:40 CST | 7 comments
Curiosity is inching her way through her first use of the drill on a Martian rock. She paused in the proceedings to capture a second Martian "selfie."
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