Blog Archive

Planetary Radio: Don't Step in That Puddle!
The Strong Evidence for Water on the Moon

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/07/01 06:18 CDT

The Planetary Science Institute's Amanda Hendrix is the guest for our July 1 episode. She finds water in the least likely places, including Luna.

Postcards from Clementine

Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/02/25 12:44 CST | 4 comments

Nineteen years ago this month, the Clementine mission sent some amazing views from the moon.

Forty years after Apollo 17's final footsteps

Posted by Andrew Chaikin on 2012/12/14 01:48 CST | 2 comments

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the last human footsteps on the Moon. In my latest video I look back at Apollo 17 and explain why I believe the Moon is the solar system's "jewel in the crown," beckoning us to return.

Up Goer Five

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/12 10:57 CST

In a stroke of pure genius, Randall Munroe of the web comic XKCD describes "Up Goer Five" with the ten hundred most commonly used words in the English language.

Petrographic thin section of Apollo 11 sample 10062

Making an ugly rock beautiful

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/02 08:03 CDT | 1 comments

Today I stumbled upon the Lunar and Planetary Institute's Lunar Sample Atlas, and was reminded of how much I love petrographic thin sections. They can make unassuming, cruddy looking rocks beautiful.

Neil Armstrong at the Apollo 11 Lunar Module on the Surface of the Moon

Pretty Picture: Eagle's Landing

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/09/13 03:59 CDT

Amateur image processor Tom Dahl's spectacularly high-resolution version of Buzz Aldrin's panoramic view of the Apollo 11 landing site.

The Moon is a KREEPy place

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/27 01:03 CDT | 2 comments

If you go to a conference about lunar geology, sooner or later you'll hear the term "KREEP" bandied about. (And almost as soon as KREEP is mentioned, a bad pun will be made. It's inevitable.) Context will tell you it has something to do with a special kind of lunar rock, but that'll only get you so far. What is KREEP, and why is it important on the Moon?

Comparing Clementine and Chandrayaan-1 spectra from the Moon

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/04/11 12:38 CDT

In a paper recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Georgiana Kramer and several coauthors performed a careful comparison of two data sets that seem like they're measuring the same things, so you'd think that the measurements they took would match between the two instruments. But they don't quite match.

Climb Aboard Apollo 11 Time Machine

Posted by Susan Lendroth on 2009/07/16 01:01 CDT

Grab your bell bottoms and Tang, and travel back to 1969 when Apollo 11's journey to the Moon captivated the world, and Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's boot prints in the lunar dust transformed us into a multi-world species.

Apollo Plus 40

Posted by Timothy Reed on 2009/06/18 12:05 CDT

The editors of the site, Nature, have begun their ApolloPlus40 blog.

Celebrate Apollo 11's 40th Anniversary with the Crew

Posted by Susan Lendroth on 2009/05/22 01:08 CDT

This summer, the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. will commemorate that extraordinary moment in history with a very special Apollo 11 celebration, featuring the mission's original crew members along with former Johnson Space Center Director Chris Kraft.