Snapshots from Space

by Emily Lakdawalla

Follow the thrilling adventures of planetary missions, past and present, and see the stunningly beautiful photos that they return from space!

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Planetary evangelism

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/06 02:51 CDT | 5 comments

It's so exciting when the small talk that lubricates social interactions with strangers turns into an excited discussion of space and science.

Congratulations to LADEE on arrival at the Moon!

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/06 08:33 CDT | 1 comments

After a one-month journey from Earth to the Moon, NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) safely entered orbit at 10:57 UTC today, October 6.

Photos: India's Mars Orbiter Mission arrives at launch site

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/05 02:39 CDT

ISRO posted five photos from the momentous day of the Mars Orbiter Mission's shipment to Sriharikota.

Government shutdown closes 3 of 4 National Radio Astronomy Observatories

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/04 06:38 CDT | 3 comments

The shutdown of the federal government continues to claim casualties. Today, the Green Bank Telescope, Very Large Array, and Very Long Baseline Arrays all shut their doors, blinding us to the radio sky and scuttling long-term research projects.

The 45th Division for Planetary Sciences meeting, Oct 6-11, 2013

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/04 03:21 CDT

The annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society begins on Sunday and runs for a week in Denver, Colorado. I'll be attending all week, bringing you the latest news from across the solar system.

Google+ Hangout with ESA about Europe's Mars exploration

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/04 09:00 CDT

The European Space Agency invited me to join Mars Express project scientist Olivier Witasse, and spacecraft oeprations manager Michel Denis for a Hangout on Europe's recent and future exploration of Mars and Phobos.

High-phase Phobos and Deimos mutual event from Mars Express

Super cool Phobos and Deimos animations from Mars Express

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/03 02:17 CDT

I've been delving in to the Mars Express image archive this week, checking out its images of Phobos, and found a couple of really cool time-series of images to assemble into animations.

Yes, there seems to be a hole in Curiosity's left front wheel, and no, that's not a problem

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/02 11:22 CDT | 15 comments

Some brand-new images just arrived from Curiosity on Mars, and two of the most recent are Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images of the wheels. Today's images contained two little surprises.

LADEE has finally left Earth

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/02 02:39 CDT | 2 comments

When LADEE launched on September 6, it launched into Earth orbit. Today, it is finally on a path that will take it to its October 6 lunar orbit insertion. Its operation is continuing normally in the face of the U.S. government's shutdown yesterday, as is that of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

First photos of comet ISON from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter achieves imaging of comet ISON from Mars

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/10/02 12:03 CDT

Yesterday, the much-anticipated comet ISON made its closest pass by Mars. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera is the first to achieve a positive detection of the somewhat-fainter-than-expected comet in its photos.