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Blog Archive
Mars' valley networks tell us of a dry, then wet, then dry Mars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/10 03:43 CDT | 1 comments
Was there rainfall on Mars? Recent work mapping valley networks suggests there probably was -- but only for about 200 million years. What does this mean for life, and the Curiosity mission?
Pluto's atmosphere does not collapse
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/06 11:07 CDT | 1 comments
Just four months ago I posted about a paper recently published by Leslie Young and coauthors that described three possible scenarios for Pluto's atmosphere. Yesterday, Cathy Olkin, Leslie Young, and coauthors posted a preprint on arXiv that says that only one of those scenarios can be true. And it's a surprising one. The title of their paper says it all: "Pluto's atmosphere does not collapse."
Caution: Spacecraft Under Construction
Visiting JPL's high bay clean room with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/08/20 10:39 CDT | 1 comments
Join Emily Lakdawalla and Mat Kaplan inside JPL's High Bay 1, where two Earth-revealing missions are being readied for launch.
Beautiful science by Elektro-L
Posted by Vitaliy Egorov on 2013/08/08 03:54 CDT | 5 comments
Six months ago, I wrote about the Russian weather satellite Elektro-L, which has more than two years of successful experience in the geostationary orbit. Then I promised that I would be here to share the materials that we collected. I think it's time to deliver on the promise.
The Ancient Snows of Mars on Planetary Radio
Grad student Kat Scanlon leads research indicating precipitation may have helped shape the surface of the red planet
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/08/06 10:20 CDT
Kat Scanlon tells Planetary Radio that Hawaii and Mars have more in common than you might think.
Happy 32! Happy New Mars Year!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/31 01:45 CDT | 4 comments
They're too far apart to have a party, but today Curiosity and Opportunity could have rung in the New Mars Year. Today Mars reached a solar longitude of zero degrees and the Sun crossed Mars' equator, heralding the arrival of spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern hemisphere.
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.
Curiosity update, sol 117: Progress report from AGU
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/12/05 07:58 CST | 4 comments
Monday was the big Curiosity day at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. A morning press briefing was followed by an afternoon science session. I traveled to San Francisco briefly just to attend those two events. Here's my notes on the first science reports from the mission.
Nifty animation: Dust in the air for Curiosity
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/21 11:21 CST
An animation of Curiosity photos shows changes in the weather.
Watching the slow shift of seasons on Titan
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/06 02:45 CST | 1 comments
A sharp-eyed amateur noticed two images of Titan taken 20 months apart from nearly exactly the same perspective, and they illustrate how the shifting of Saturn's seasons has brought change to Titan's atmosphere.
Hurricane Sandy: Thanks for lives saved already
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/29 11:32 CDT
Today hurricane Sandy is a major threat to life and property across the west coast of the northern Atlantic ocean. I just want to give thanks in advance to all the people who have devoted their careers to making sure that Americans have sufficient warning of devastating, unstoppable weather events like this one.
DPS 2012: The most detailed images of Uranus' atmosphere ever
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/22 04:14 CDT | 3 comments
New ground-based images of Uranus show more finely detailed structure than any photos I have ever seen.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/08/22 05:42 CDT | 5 comments
New Hubble photos show that Uranus has both dark and bright spots!
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/07/03 04:04 CDT | 2 comments
Talk about changing climates on this world and others brought 600 people to the Boulder Theater.
Third Martian Anniversary for Mars Climate Sounder
Posted by David Kass on 2012/05/16 11:35 CDT | 2 comments
May 16, 2012 is the third martian anniversary of the start of Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) observations from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. MCS started measuring the atmosphere of Mars three Mars years ago, on September 24, 2006. We can now compare the weather and behavior of the atmosphere in three different years, and find the temperature differences to be surprisingly large.
Examining India's new RISAT 1 Earth observation satellite
Posted by Jason Davis on 2012/05/02 12:03 CDT | 1 comments
Last week, India launched RISAT 1, a new Earth-observing satellite. How does its synthetic aperture radar compare to that of Envisat, which has fallen silent?
Notes from Titan talks at the 2012 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC)
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/03/20 02:16 CDT
One of the topics I found most exciting yesterday was a series of talks on Titan's climate. Bob West showed how Titan's detached haze has shifted with time. Zibi Turtle presented about how Titan's weather has changed with these seasonal changes. Jason Barnes followed up Zibi's talk -- which was based on Cassini camera images -- with a study of the same regions using data from Cassini's imaging spectrometer, trying to figure out what was going on with that brightening. Ralph Lorenz talked about rainfall rates on Titan. Jeff Moore asked: what if Titan hasn't always had a thick atmosphere?
Emily's New Video Series: Snapshots From Space
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/02/20 04:29 CST
This is the first episode of editor Emily Lakdawalla's new video series exploring the solar system.
The state of Earth observation, January 2012
Posted by Jason Davis on 2012/01/09 05:54 CST
As of November 2011, the Earth Observing Handbook counts 109 active missions to study the Earth as a planet, with 112 more approved and planned for the future. Jason Davis provides an overview of key current and upcoming earth-observing missions.
Nighttime Water Ice Clouds Predicted by Models are Confirmed by MCS Observations
Posted by Jim Shirley on 2011/10/25 12:00 CDT
A daily cycle of cloud formation in the Martian tropics during northern summer is driven largely by solar radiation and the associated solar thermal tide. Models predict a striking pattern of cloud formation above the high altitude volcanoes of the Tharsis region. At mid-day, the atmosphere is typically free of clouds due to elevated temperatures. Beginning in the early evening hours, atmospheric cooling at altitudes above 20 kilometers begins to foster water ice cloud formation. During the night, the altitude of cloud formation descends closer to the surface.
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