Blog Archive
New names for Pluto's little moons Kerberos and Styx; and a new moon for Neptune
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/15 01:37 CDT | 4 comments
Pluto's moons, formerly known as "P4" and "P5," are now named Kerberos and Styx; I thought I'd help place them into context with a little help from Cassini. Also, Neptune now has a 14th known moon.
Scale comparisons of the solar system's major moons
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/10 06:05 CDT | 12 comments
A few presentation slides with pretty pictures, sized to scale, of the large moons of the solar system.
My ever-popular asteroids-and-comets montage, now in color, with bonus Toutatis
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/12/18 04:26 CST | 9 comments
My collage of all the asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft is probably the single most popular image I have ever posted on this blog. I've now updated it to be in color and to include Toutatis.
Cheat sheets for Vesta's craters and Dawn's Vesta timeline
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/04/19 01:38 CDT
I made myself a cheat sheet to many of Vesta's distinctive-looking craters, and also wrote down a list of the major dates in the timeline of Dawn's exploration of Vesta.
This is how far human radio broadcasts have reached into the galaxy
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/24 05:26 CST | 1 comments
There is an ever-expanding bubble announcing Humanity's presence to anyone listening in the Milky Way.
The Scale of the Universe, by Cary and Michael Huang
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/16 10:14 CST
Cary and Michael Huang present a basic "powers of ten" visualization starting at human scale from which you can scrub downward smaller than quarks or upward to the scale of the entire universe.
Where are the big Kuiper belt objects?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/16 05:35 CST | 6 comments
Earlier today I wrote a post about how to calculate the position of a body in space from its orbital elements. I'm trying to get a big-picture view of what's going on in trans-Neptunian space.
Posted by Bill Nye on 2012/02/03 01:09 CST | 1 comments
I have just returned from my first Planetary Society-sponsored trip to Puerto Rico and this historic, remarkable, big idea of a telescope.
At last, I've finished my scale solar system presentation slide/poster
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/12/01 01:22 CST
A presentation providing a correctly scaled, reasonably correctly colored view of the largest bodies in the solar system is made available for use by teachers, professors, and informal educators.
Scale solar system presentation slide, a provisional version for you to review
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/09/15 02:18 CDT
Scale solar system presentation slide, a provisional version for you to review
In Memory of Spirit, and Why Cuteness Matters
Posted by Melissa Rice on 2011/06/15 02:21 CDT
An analysis of "cuteness", and why it matters when talking about science.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/03/17 06:15 CDT
As I wait for the MESSENGER Mercury Orbit Insertion webcast to start, I thought I'd fiddle with some images to point out that Mercury is a bridge between the scales of planets and the scales of moons.
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