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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Hello, snowman! (Cassini observes Iapetus)
I visited the Cassini raw images site today and was pleased to see another couple of sets of images have been captured on Iapetus.
Lovely album of photos from WISE
Today the Wide-field Survey Explorer (WISE) team released a small album of beautiful astrophotos.
Cassini eyes the eyeball
On Saturday, Cassini flew within 9,500 kilometers of Mimas, the innermost of the medium-sized icy moons of Saturn.
Inside the U.N.'s Near Earth Object Working Group
This week Bruce Betts is attending a U.N. meeting in Austria, in particular the parts focused on international considerations of the near-Earth object threat.
Calypso coolness
Cassini got pretty close to Calypso yesterday, on the way in to Mimas. Calypso is one of the smaller moonlets of Saturn.
Planetary Society Researcher Max Rocca Discovers Largest Impact Crater in South America
It was January of 2004 when the elegant curve of the Vichada first caught the attention of geologist Max Rocca of Buenos Aires. Could the course of the river have been shaped by the circular outlines of an impact crater? Rocca decided to find out.
Hubble sees both of Saturn's aurorae
Yesterday, the European wing of the Hubble PR machine released this cool image of Saturn and its aurorae, with an associated video.
Find pics and track the rovers in Google Mars
I think a goodly proportion of you readers have already figured this out for yourselves since it was launched last March, but I didn't download and install it until last weekend, so this is new to me: Google Mars is awesome.
A Space Carnival (#140) and some new names for Enceladus
This week the Carnival of Space is over at one of my favorite new blogs, Lights in the Dark. Actually it's not so new -- evidently this week marks its first anniversary!
Pretty picture: Opportunity around Concepcion
Here's a neat picture from Opportunity, a panorama composed of its wide-angle, mast-mounted Navcam cameras, showing the crater Concepcion.
WISE has found its first comet, P/2010 B2 (WISE)
Having discovered its first asteroid on January 12, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has now officially discovered its first comet, P/2010 B2 (WISE).
Manic Monday: Chocolate Hills, Io, and NASA's budget
Although I am not suffering under the
New maps of Pluto show pretty amazing amounts of surface change
I just posted my writeup of today's press briefing on a new map of Pluto produced from Hubble images. The main conclusion was that Pluto has shown an astonishing amount of changes across its surface between 1994 and 2002 -- more, in fact, than any other solid surface in the solar system.
Way-cool Martian flyovers by Doug Ellison
Doug Ellison has been playing with Martian digital terrain models recently, to great effect.
Hooray! Cassini's tour has been extended for SEVEN MORE YEARS!
NASA has just announced that once Cassini's Equinox Mission runs out in June of this year, they will extend it a further seven more years, long enough for the spacecraft to see Saturn through its solstice!!
Spectacular Hubble view of the aftermath of an asteroid collision
Hubble has caught an astonishing view of something that's never before been observed, the aftermath of a collision between two asteroids in the main belt.
Mars Express animation of Phobos' shadow transiting Mars
For the first time ever, Mars Express' Visual Monitoring Camera has imaged the shadow of Mars' moon Phobos crossing the surface of Mars.
A pretty picture of Concepcion crater
It looks like the rover team thinks Concepcion is pretty enough (in both aesthetic and a scientific senses) to be worthy of the full-color Pancam panorama treatment; color frames started arriving on Earth over the weekend.
Opportunity's thousand-year-old crater
Since leaving Marquette Island on sol 2,122, Opportunity has been barreling southward on her journey toward Endeavour crater. On her horizon for the last several sols has been a very small but very fresh looking crater named Concepción.
Cassini Aegaeon and Prometheus awesomeness
There were many, many treats waiting on the Cassini raw images website this morning. Yesterday, Cassini traversed the G ring, taking photos all the way.



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