Blog Archive

OSIRIS-REx "Name That Asteroid!" Contest Deadline Extended to December 31

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/30 03:32 CST

Good news, everyone! The OSIRIS-REx team wants to give as many kids as possible a chance to Name That Asteroid! The contest entry deadline has been extended to December 31.

Curiosity's SAM instrument, from the side (side panel removed)

More than you probably wanted to know about Curiosity's SAM instrument

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/30 12:31 CST | 24 comments

With all the hoopla surrounding the unknown results of the first analysis of a soil sample by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, I thought an explainer would be useful. What is SAM, what is it designed to measure, and what is the nature of its results? Here you go.

SMBC on NASA announcements

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/29 11:56 CST

Zach Weiner of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal critiques NASA's announcement style.

Water ice and organics at Mercury's poles

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/29 02:16 CST | 9 comments

Water ice at Mercury's poles? That's crazy, right? The MESSENGER team has made a very good case that radar-bright material seen by the Arecibo telescope is, in fact, water ice, covered in most places by a veneer of dark organic material.

Mosaic of the asteroid Vesta from the Dawn spacecraft

Images from the long-awaited Dawn Vesta data set

Posted by Daniel Macháček on 2012/11/29 11:55 CST | 4 comments

A few days ago, the Dawn mission finally published their archival data. During the year of delay I often looked with anticipation to the Planetary Data System to check whether or not images were there, and I am delighted that they are finally available. Was the wait worth it? Definitely!

That amazing image of Saturn's north pole just got better: now, it moves!

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/28 11:27 CST | 2 comments

Remember the amazing photo of Saturn's north pole that I posted yesterday? Now, thanks to an amateur image processor, it moves, and the motions of the individual clouds within the belts are mesmerizing.