Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

Welcome 2011! I can't wait for what this year has in store. The prize for all of you who have enjoyed opening each door in the Planetary Society's 2010 advent calendar is one of the best views we can get of one of the biggest objects in the asteroid belt, Vesta.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the thirty-first (and next-to-last) door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these dark-rimmed craters?

Emily Lakdawalla

This week is the end for Kodachrome film. It's a casualty of the digital revolution.

A.J.S. Rayl

The Mars Exploration Rovers are wrapping up another year of exploring their seventh -- having experienced both the best of times and the worst of times: Spirit continued a 10-month struggle to endure its coldest, harshest Martian winter yet; Opportunity set a new record for driving despite an arthritic front wheel and a broken shoulder, putting more miles on her rocker bogie in 2010 than in any other single year.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the thirtieth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this ridged crater?

Emily Lakdawalla

I've just posted my annual roundup of significant images from planetary exploration in 2010.

Emily Lakdawalla

Did you know that before Bill Nye was the Planetary Guy or even the Science Guy he was an aerospace engineer, designing components for the Boeing 747?

Emily Lakdawalla

SOHO was launched more than 15 years ago to study the Sun, primarily; but a side benefit of its constant observation of the Sun has been its ability to notice

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twenty-eighth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this cratered and streaked surface?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twenty-seventh door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this flat-floored depression?

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

Today the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast aired my contribution, Small Worlds, about the smaller denizens of the solar system visited in the past year, and due to be visited in the next.

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.