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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Two more awesome pictures from the Enceladus flyby
I'm getting to be a broken record here, but I can't stop looking at these photos from the Enceladus flyby.
Prepare for your jaw to hit the floor when you see these pictures of Enceladus
Wow, just wow. I didn't know what to expect from the second flyby of Saturn's geyser moon Enceladus in November, which happened yesterday.
Another great Enceladus shot
Here's a 4-frame mosaic of Enceladus images -- just another everyday spectacularly alien landscape.
Encouraging motion on Spirit
It really looks like the second attempt at driving Spirit out of the trap has had the hoped-for result: some forward progress (maybe about a centimeter), and no evidence for further downward sinking.
Opportunity's poking at Marquette Island; Cassini's catching dancing moons
Since tomorrow's class is going to be on playing with raw images from the rovers and Cassini, I've been playing with recent raw images from the rovers and Cassini! I just thought I'd share a couple of the fun items I've been working with.
Be a Martian!
I think the new
Results of the first "Free Spirit" extrication drive, sol 2088: not much, as expected
Even though all of us rover fans know that Spirit is really, really stuck, I think I'm not the only one who was secretly hoping that today's images downlinked from Spirit would show that the rover had magically popped out of the ground overnight. Of course, she didn't.
LCROSS team: "Yes, we found water!"
I just posted a story on the announcement today that LCROSS definitely found lots of water in the spectra from their October 9 impact.
Rosetta Earth swingby successful
Rosetta appears to have operated flawlessly as it streaked past Earth for its flyby early this morning. Here are a few more gems from the flyby.
Highlights from today's Spirit press briefing
Since A. J. S. Rayl was also listening in on today's press briefing about the efforts to extricate Spirit from her predicament at Troy, I'll just hit the high points and send you over to her story when she has posted it.
Two new names in the solar system: Herse and Weywot
Via the USGS I learned that Jupiter has passed a milestone of sorts, and now has fifty named satellites.
Crescent Earth
Just hours away from its Earth flyby, Rosetta is busily snapping images and gathering other science data.
Tracking the stars -- and Earth
This was a neat photo from ESA today.
Rosetta is homing in on Earth
Heads up! ESA's Rosetta spacecraft is approaching for its last flyby of Earth, on Friday, November 13.
Four moons and a ring
Thanks to Mike Malaska for the tip on this one. The image is part of an animation that ends with Rhea transiting Saturn.
Planetary Radio Q and A: Are meteorites on Mars actually interesting?
The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been studying a lot of meteorites. That made me wonder, why study meteorites on Mars when we can study them in hand on Earth? How are Mars meteorites interesting?
She moves! "First drive sequence in 145 sols" for Spirit
It's been an awful long time since we've seen one of these from Spirit: an animation of four Navcam frames documenting motion!
MESSENGER Rewrites Mercury Textbooks Even Before Entering Orbit
As MESSENGER zoomed toward Mercury for its third flyby, it was commanded to rotate in a maneuver that would help it test a surprising result from the second flyby.
Planetary Radio Q and A: Not-so-gassy giants
On Planetary Radio's
