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How Curiosity Will Land on Mars, Part 2: Descent
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Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/29 07:04 CDT | 6 comments
When people first hear about how Curiosity will land on Mars, their first question always is: are they nuts? This is the second in a multi-part series describing how -- and why -- Curiosity will land this way, in excruciating detail.
Celebrate Curiosity at Planetfest 2012
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Posted by Bill Nye on 2012/06/28 03:35 CDT | 6 comments
Join me at Planetfest™ 2012: Curiosity Knows No Bounds, August 4 and 5 in Pasadena, CA. Space exploration brings out the best in us humans, and Planetfest is a celebration of the amazing Curiosity rover’s historic landing on Mars! We will all get to know more about our planetary neighbor and the spacecraft unlocking its secrets.
Virtual Star Parties
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Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/28 12:02 CDT
Hang out with Fraser Cain and amateur astronomers all over the world in Cosmoquest's Virtual Star parties conducted over Google+. Here's how -- plus an inspiring video produced by Google to show just how cool this is.
Salacia: As big as Ceres, but much farther away
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/26 12:27 CDT | 10 comments
A newly published paper shows trans-Neptunian object Salacia to be unexpectedly large; it's somewhere around the tenth largest known thing beyond Neptune. It has a companion one-third its size, making it appear similar to Orcus and Vanth.
A geochemist's Periodic Table of Elements
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/25 07:39 CDT | 4 comments
The Periodic Table of Elements that hangs in chemistry classrooms doesn't include a lot of the information about elements that's most important to geologists. Here's one that does.
Zapping Rocks with Lasers to Save the World
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/06/25 05:59 CDT | 8 comments
The Planetary Society Laser Bees project in Scotland is studying in the lab a potential new technique for deflecting dangerous asteroids: laser ablation.
How Curiosity Will Land on Mars, Part 1: Entry
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/22 07:19 CDT | 14 comments
When people first hear about how Curiosity will land on Mars, their first question always is: are they nuts? This is the first in a multi-part series describing how -- and why -- Curiosity will land this way, in excruciating detail.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/20 02:40 CDT
Just a pretty global view of one of Saturn's flock of icy moons, newly processed from archival data by Gordan Ugarkovic.
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/06/20 10:24 CDT | 2 comments
Okay, just the ones we know about. xkcd does it again.
Cosmoquest Science Hangout Wednesday June 20 2300 UTC: Ravi Prakash, Curiosity engineer
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/18 05:32 CDT | 1 comments
This Cosmoquest Science Hangout featured Ravi Prakash, Curiosity Entry, Descent, and Landing Systems Engineer. He explained how Curiosity will land on Mars, and why they've changed things since Spirit and Opportunity landed.
HiWishing for 3D Mars images, part I
Posted by Alfred McEwen on 2012/06/18 03:10 CDT
Hundreds of images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera are publicly available, if you know where to look.
Posted by Jason Davis on 2012/06/16 12:08 CDT | 1 comments
China’s fourth human spaceflight mission got underway this morning after a Long March 2F rocket blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 10:37 UTC.
Hunting Asteroids from a Field in Kansas
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/06/15 06:33 CDT
TPS Shoemaker NEO Grant Winner Gary Hug hunts near Earth objects from his back yard in Kansas. NPR's Morning Edition picked up on this fascinating story.
Pretty picture: Halo on a halo?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/15 05:21 CDT | 6 comments
An interesting set of images of Titan that Cassini took recently shows a peculiar cap at Titan's south pole.
Update on yesterday's post about Chang'E 2 going to Toutatis
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/15 11:29 CDT | 3 comments
I have a couple of updates on my post from yesterday: confirmation that Chang'E 2 is indeed gone from L2, and more specifics on encounter dates with Toutatis.
Chang'E 2 has departed Earth's neighborhood for.....asteroid Toutatis!?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/14 07:53 CDT | 1 comments
According to a Chinese spaceflight forum, Chang'E program chief scientist Ouyang Ziyuan recently announced that Chang'E 2 has departed the Sun-Earth L2 point and is now en route to asteroid 4179 Toutatis!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/14 12:13 CDT
This week's Cosmoquest Google+ Space Hangout, featured me, Fraser Cain, Amy Teitel, and Nicole Gigliucci. We talked about Curiosity's landing, exoplanets, the Fermi Paradox, and tropical lakes on Titan.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/14 11:00 CDT | 7 comments
A reader comment on Jay Pasachoff's post last week about Venus transits viewed from other planets had me asking whether transits of other planets were also interesting to astronomers. Jay provided some answers!
Planetary Radio is Back on iTunes!
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/06/14 10:38 CDT
With help from Apple, we've once again made Planetary Radio, our weekly podcast and public radio series, available from the most popular spot on the Net to find and subscribe to podcasts.
China readies three taikonauts for station visit
Posted by Jason Davis on 2012/06/13 11:05 CDT | 1 comments
The stage is set for China’s space program to make history this weekend, as it prepares to send three taikonauts to visit Tiangong-1, the country’s first space station.
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