Articles

Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.

Artist's concept of Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner rover

Way-cool Martian flyovers by Doug Ellison

Doug Ellison has been playing with Martian digital terrain models recently, to great effect.

Comparison between 1994 and 2002-3 maps of Pluto

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.

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!!

Hubble views the aftermath of an asteroid collision

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.

Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Rovers Pass 6-Year Milestone as Spirit Halts Extrication to Winter at Troy, Opportunity Cruises to Concepcion Crater

Five and a half years after they were supposed to be history, the Mars Exploration Rovers celebrated their sixth Earth year on the Red Planet with Opportunity pulling up to a fresh, new crater on the road to Endeavour, and Spirit working on repositioning itself to settle in for the coming Martian winter, and perhaps the rest of its mission.

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.

Awesome New Mars Flyovers

Check out these awesome flyovers of Mars, generated by Doug Ellison of UnmannedSpaceflight!

NASA decides Spirit is henceforth to be a lander

There was a press briefing today that announced the official end of efforts to extricate Spirit from her sand trap at Troy. Instead, the rover drivers will now focus on improving the chances that Spirit will survive the coming winter so that she can carry on doing science once the power situation improves in the spring.

Brief rover update: "We do not believe [Spirit] is extractable."

There's a press briefing going on right now that marks today, January 26, 2010, more than six years after she landed, the day that NASA decided that Spirit's roving days were over.

CTX and MARCI -- The OTHER Cameras on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

WISE's first near-Earth asteroid, 2010 AB78

WISE bags its first near-Earth object, 2010 AB78

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) just took its lens cap off on December 29, and posted its

Mars during the 2007 opposition: longitude 50°

Your chance to shoot your own high-resolution pictures of Mars

The HiRISE public suggestion tool, called HiWish, is a Web site that allows you to log in and select a spot on Mars as a suggestion for where the HiRISE instrument should take an image.