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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Exposing Io's true colors
Thanks to its active volcanic activity and sulfur-rich surface, Io is one of the most colorful worlds yet seen in the Solar System, save the Earth of course
New Horizons images Jupiter again
Three years after New Horizons flew past Jupiter on its way to Pluto, the spacecraft has imaged the giant planet again.
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.
Jupiter's faded belt: It's happened before, and it'll happen again
When I wrote a post about Jupiter's missing South Equatorial Belt in May, I had three main questions: how long did it take for the belt to go away, has this happened before, and how can a planet as big as Jupiter change its appearance so quickly?
The June 3 Jupiter Impact: 22 hours later
Time to take stock of what happened a day ago. The worldwide, round-the-clock nature of planetary science is both exhilarating and challenging!
Confirmation of the Jupiter impact from Christopher Go
The impact flash on Jupiter observed earlier today by Anthony Wesley has been confirmed by Philippines-based amateur astronomer Christopher Go.
A NEW! Impact on Jupiter
On the same day as a team of astronomers released new Hubble Space Telescope images of last year's Jupiter impact, the original discoverer of the 2009 impact scar, Anthony Wesley, reported on an amateur astronomy forum that he had observed a new impact on Jupiter.
Jupiter has lost a belt!
Via Daniel Fischer's Tweet about a blog entry by Astro BobI learned of something which should be obvious to anyone who has trained even a rather small telescope on Jupiter over the past few weeks: one of its iconic stripes is just plain gone.
Hubble turns 20
Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. It's hard to believe it's been going strong for so many years.
Volcanism across the solar system: Earth
Yesterday I asked for suggestions for topics to write about, and you readers seem to have volcanoes on your minds!
Where neon falls like rain
As if Titan's methane rain weren't weird enough, Jupiter's now thought to have helium-neon rain.
A new view of Callisto
Here's a lovely amateur-produced color image of Jupiter's moon Callisto, or, as its artist Daniel Macháček calls it,
Titan: Callisto with weather
It's the second time I've posted with this provocative title. This time, it's in response to a new paper published last week in Science.
Pretty pictures: Europa from Galileo and Voyager
For some reason both Jason Perry and Ted Stryk took it upon themselves to produce new, pretty versions of Jupiter's moon Europa this week, so I'm hereby featuring them!
Pretty picture: Io, labeled
Jason Perry just posted this lovely labeled image of Io over at his blog, the Gish Bar Times.
LPSC: Why Ganymede and Callisto are so different
The first talk I attended at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston was my one icy satellite talk for the day.
Manic Monday: Chocolate Hills, Io, and NASA's budget
Although I am not suffering under the
Report #1 from the New Horizons Science Team Meeting
The New Horizons science team is meeting this week. Ted Stryk was invited to attend the meeting, and he sent the following notes from the first day.
400 Years of the Galilean Satellites
It was 400 years ago today that Galileo discovered smaller planets attending the planet Jupiter.
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 24: Ganymede
I think if you polled most space fans about their favorite moons of Jupiter, Ganymede would come in a consistent third behind Europa and Io. It's just not fair.