Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

In a move that's kind of hard to understand in the wake of the immense public outreach success of the Hayabusa mission, JAXA is closing JAXA i, its public information center in Tokyo today (December 28 in Japan).

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twenty-fifth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these conjoined craters?

Emily Lakdawalla

Each day until the New Year, I'll be opening a door onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these squirrely spots?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twenty-second door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these degraded craters?

Emily Lakdawalla

Cassini's busy downlinking photos from yesterday's close pass by Enceladus, including some neat shots of Dione and this one where Mimas skipped briefly in to the field of view.

Emily Lakdawalla

Ordinarily it's not my thing to do so many updates on a mission that failed to arrive in orbit, but I know that it's difficult for English-speaking readers to locate information on Asian missions so I'm keeping up the reporting on Akatsuki.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twentieth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this diffuse blob and stripy sea?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the eighteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this brush-stroked surface?

Emily Lakdawalla

The Hayabusa update is brief: having opened the first Hayabusa sample return chamber (compartment A) last month, JAXA has now opened compartment B, and they found nothing inside.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the seventeenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these strange promontories?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the fifteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this cratered world?

Emily Lakdawalla

Today Opportunity has driven to within 20 meters of Santa Maria crater, and the blocks around it are really, really cool-looking. This one is a dead ringer for the severed tail of an alligator.

Emily Lakdawalla

Until the New Year, I'll be opening a door each day onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these red freckles?

Emily Lakdawalla

Opportunity is on a kilometers-long eastward road trip across Meridiani Planum toward the rim of a large ancient crater named Endeavour; it'll be many months yet before she gets there.

Emily Lakdawalla

Just after Akatsuki missed entering orbit, another spacecraft, IKAROS, quietly passed by Venus.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the thirteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these parallel gouges?

Emily Martin

There is really cool geology being explored on large, oddly shaped asteroids. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission reached 433 Eros in 2000, and one of the exciting results was the discovery of features called

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twelfth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this trapezoidal mountain?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the eleventh door in the advent calendar. Until the New Year, I'll be opening a door onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these sinuous ridges?

Emily Lakdawalla

An English-language article in the December 11 Yomiuri Shimbun summarizes the news from the Akatsuki press briefing held at 11:00 December 10 JST (last night, my time). It's succinct and clear so I'm reposting it here.