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Blog Archive

The "Starship Century" Beckons
Gregory and James Benford return to Planetary Radio

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/10/01 10:30 CDT

The Benford brothers provide inspiration and hard fact in their excellent new anthology about interstellar travel.

Book Review: Rock Star: Adventures of a Meteorite Man, by Geoff Notkin

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/20 10:41 CDT | 3 comments

Rock Star -- the memoir of television "Meteorite Man" Geoff Notkin -- is a life's journey full of joy, wonder, and fun, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Destiny or Chance Revisited, by Stuart Ross Taylor

Book review: Destiny or Chance Revisited

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/04 01:02 CDT | 1 comments

What have the recent discoveries of thousands of exoplanets told us about how we got here, and whether we are alone? In Destiny or Chance Revisited, Stuart Ross Taylor attempts to answer those two questions.

Book review: Europe to the Stars, by Govert Schilling and Lars Lindberg Christensen

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/16 11:05 CDT

The world's great telescopes capture stunning photographs of stars, nebulae, and other sky phenomena. In Europe to the Stars, authors Govert Schilling and Lars Lindberg Christensen share many such photos. But the real stars of this book are the great telescopes of the European Southern Observatory.

Woohoo! The LEGO Curiosity rover is going to be a kit!

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/18 07:02 CDT | 2 comments

The awesome LEGO Curiosity rover designed by Stephen Pakbaz is going to go into production!

Book Review: Cosmochemistry, by Harry McSween and Gary Huss

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/02 01:43 CDT | 1 comments

This very accessible textbook begins at the beginning, explaining how all the things in the solar system were made from star stuff.

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/12/11 04:59 CST | 2 comments

My final set of reviews of children's books for 2012: five recommended nonfiction books for a range of ages.

Reviews of nonfiction book series for children

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/12/10 05:49 CST

Here are four recommended space nonfiction book series that would make excellent additions to any children's library.

Planetfall, by Michael Benson, published by Abrams

Two beautiful space picture books by Michael Benson

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/26 12:03 CST | 1 comments

Michael Benson's Planetfall and a children's edition of his earlier book Beyond put the gorgeous pictures returned from space front and center.

A spectacular calendar for 2013

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/13 09:02 CST | 1 comments

Steve Cariddi's Year in Space wall calendar crams an incredible variety of information into a beautiful, large wall calendar that is great for grownups, kids, or classrooms.

Reviews of space-themed story books for children

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/29 11:20 CDT

In an annual tradition, I review eight children's story books with planetary and astronomy themes. Favorites include Pieces of Another World by Mara Rockliff and Solar System Forecast by Kelly Kizer Whitt.

Keep Calm and Carry on Exploring T-shirt

DPS 2012: Who were you wearing?

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/24 04:32 CDT | 2 comments

Scientific conferences have become more fun since it suddenly became cool to be a geek. I thoroughly enjoy the "geek uniform" of witty T-shirt and jeans, and did my best to wardrobe myself in relevant geekwear each day of the meeting. This post is for all the people at DPS who asked where my clothes came from.

Book Review: Planetary Surface Processes, by H. Jay Melosh

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/23 12:18 CDT | 2 comments

Planetary Surface Processes provides a rigorous overview of every process that shapes the appearance of planetary surfaces, and I'll be referring to it to help me explain everything from impact cratering to isostasy.

Book Review: The International Atlas of Mars Exploration, by Phil Stooke

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/12 04:31 CDT | 3 comments

I've been waiting for the publication of this book for years. Phil Stooke's International Atlas of Mars Exploration, just published by Cambridge University Press, is an exhaustively awesome labor of love, chronicling the first five decades of Mars exploration in pictures, maps, and facts.

An amazing LEGO model of Curiosity

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/09/03 09:15 CDT | 1 comments

A petite model of Curiosity in LEGO accurately represents many of its features and functions.

This photo of Mars was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on May 9, 2003. Processed by Ted Stryk.

Mars24 has been upgraded for Curiosity

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/03 10:46 CDT

Robert Schmunk has released a new version of the Mars24 application to help us tell time at Curiosity's landing site.

A blog that started out as a product review, but turned into something else entirely

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/07/10 12:02 CDT | 11 comments

A review of the Aeromax "NASA Junior Astronaut Suit Child Costume," with bonus review of a backyard airplane teeter-totter. But the review took a turn that I was not prepared for.

Hold the Moon in Your Hands

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/12 04:49 CDT | 5 comments

Sky & Telescope and Replogle Globes teamed up to take advantage of the fabulous new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image mosaic of the Moon to make an equally fabulous new Moon globe.