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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Voyager at Saturn, one year later
Here are two newly processed portraits of Saturn, showing the planet just after its equinox.
A little chuckle for your Monday morning
During Friday's first roll for Curiosity, there was a lot of banter in the Ustream chat room about all the bunny-suited engineers waving at the cameras and mugging for portraits with the rover. One chat room member,
LightSail team learns from IKAROS
While we were in New York for the International Solar Sailing Symposium last week, we held a meeting with the Japanese IKAROS team to discuss technical results and issues in our two projects.
Curiosity rolls!
Enjoy my extremely low-tech animation of Curiosity's first
A spectacular new global map of Mars, which YOU can make even better
I am such a nerd. This new map of Mars just brought tears to my eyes. Honestly.
Live camera on Curiosity in JPL clean room all day today
Tune in to Ustream right now to see Curiosity, the next Mars rover, on its wheels in the
Watching the birth and death of moonlets in Saturn's F ring
The Saturn system is always in motion, always changing. Saturn itself is a gas giant, with swirling storms, and like the other gas giants it has a host of moons flying around, perturbing each other's motions. And then there's the rings.
Color portrait of asteroid 21 Lutetia
Since it doesn't look like the Rosetta mission is going to be releasing any color versions of their Lutetia close-encounter images any time soon, I figured it was time to make one.
From the Solar Sail Symposium in New York
This week, Bill Nye and I are attending the International Solar Sail Symposium at the New York College of Technology.
Volcanism across the solar system: Io
Three months ago, grandiosely, I announced that I was going to survey volcanism across the solar system, and I began the journey on Earth. Then I failed to follow up.
A bull's eye on the Moon
Orientale is the youngest large impact basin on the Moon, which means that very little of it has been obliterated by later impacts.
Cassini eyes Janus
Four times a year, the Cassini mission releases three months' worth of data gathered from Saturn and its moons to NASA's Planetary Data System.
Observing the Martian Atmosphere for Two Mars Years
June 29, 2010 was the second Martian anniversary of the start of Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) observations at Mars.
3D Anaglyph: Troughs or vents in Cerberus Fossae?
OK, it's time to look silly in your red-blue glasses again! When Tanya Harrison sent me those awesome 3D views of Olympica Fossae from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's CTX camera, she sent me two other sets of 3D landscapes on Mars.
Rosetta's Lutetia pictures
I saw these pictures for the first time just 10 minutes before boarding my flight back home, and forced myself to download everything I could find as quickly as possible without pausing to actually look at them.
Lutetia -- and Saturn!!
A quick post of just one of the gorgeous images from Rosetta's flyby of Lutetia today; for more, see the Rosetta Blog. But this one was just too pretty to wait for.
Rosetta Lutetia flyby successful; approach images posted; high-res images yet to come
All appears to be going very smoothly on Rosetta through, and after, its flyby today of asteroid (21) Lutetia.
Where to watch the Rosetta flyby of Lutetia
A quick post to gather information on where to watch the events of today's flyby of asteroid (21) Lutetia by Rosetta.
Rosetta's Lutetia navigation campaign complete
Rosetta's most important job over the last few months has been to observe how the position of asteroid (21) Lutetia shifts against the background of fixed (fixed, that is, as far as Rosetta can see) stars.
JAXA confirms acceleration of IKAROS solar sail by photon pressure
The Japanese space agency reported on their web site today that acceleration of the IKAROS spacecraft by solar pressure has been confirmed.