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Planetary News: The Planetary Society (2009)

The Year in Pictures: 2009

Click to enlarge > Click here to go straight to the first picture Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / mosaic by Emily Lakdawalla

By Emily Lakdawalla
December 31, 2009

The year 2009 saw a lull in launches to other planets, with both the American and Russian planned launches to Mars slipping two years to 2011. Momentous events occurred nearer to Earth, however: March saw the launch of the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft (now trailing Earth in its orbit), and in May, astronauts rocketed up to rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope, performing repairs and installing new instruments that should give it at least another five productive years. Several more space shuttle missions have nearly completed the construction of the International Space Station, and in June, the simultaneous launch of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) marked the United States’ return to the Moon (literally, in the case of LCROSS, which deliberately crashed into the Moon on October 9, following Kaguya, which deliberately crashed on June 11).

Meanwhile, plenty of spacecraft are actively exploring the planets. Mars continued to enjoy the attention of three orbiters (Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) and the two Mars Exploration Rovers. Cassini witnessed a once-in-15-years event at Saturn, the equinox, when the Sun passed through Saturn’s ring plane, illuminating bizarre ring structures through the long shadows that they cast. MESSENGER completed its third and final flyby of Mercury before entering orbit, while Stardust, Deep Impact, and Rosetta passed by Earth on their way to comets. Finally, Dawn and New Horizons patiently cruised onward in their long journeys to Vesta and Pluto.

The pictures below document just some of this action unfolding across the solar system.

March 25: Full Power	March 26: Celestial Object Found on Earth	April 8: First Light for a Planet-Hunter	May 18: Rejuvenating Hubble
June 11: Mired up to the Hubcaps on Mars	June 11: Moon Princess Returns Home	June 26: Side-lit Structures in Saturn's Rings	June 28: Very Recent Gullies at High Latitude on Mars
July: Massive Meteorite Makes Martian Mile Marker	July-October: Relics of Human Exploration of the Moon	July 19: Amateur Astronomer Discovers a Jupiter Impact	July 24: The New Pillars of Creation
August 11: Saturn at Equinox	August 26-September 6: Incomprehensible Numbers of Galaxies	September: Zoom to the Center of the Milky Way	September 14: Lasers Map the Moon's Shape
September 29: Filling in the Gaps at Mercury	November 9: Planetary Society to Sail Again	November 13: Crescent Homeworld	November 21: Enceladus' Southern Fountains

If you'd like to check out past Years in Pictures, just visit the Year in Pictures 2008, Year in Pictures 2007, the Year in Pictures 2006, and the Year in Pictures 2005.

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