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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
NASA Budget Cuts Do Not Make Business Sense
Garry Hunt brings a distinctive perspective to the now-raging debate over the cuts to NASA's science program proposed in the Administration's fiscal year 2013 budget.
Iapetus' peerless equatorial ridge
A new paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets by Dombard, Cheng, McKinnon, and KayI claims to explain how Iapetus' equatorial ridge formed. Cool!
Pretty picture: A sunset postcard and a special shadow from Opportunity
It took Don Davis many hours of meticulous labor to assemble this beautiful postcard from Mars.
Adventures in urban astrophotography
Just because you live in an urban area with skyglow doesn't mean you can't have fun with astrophotography. How to capture the planets, constellations and the ISS.
Emily's New Video Series: Snapshots From Space
This is the first episode of editor Emily Lakdawalla's new video series exploring the solar system.
More Dawn Vesta approach images: First color views
On June 30, Dawn stopped thrusting for a full Vestian day -- five hours and 20 minutes -- and just watched the asteroid rotate. But unlike the previous observations, they used all of Dawn's color filters to acquire the best-ever color photos of the lumpy world.
Discouraging the search for Mars Polar Lander
I'm not encouraging people to search individual images for the Mars Polar Lander anymore, for three reasons.
Big Bend designated International Dark Sky Park
The International Dark Sky Association designated Big Bend as an International Dark Sky Park, confirming its status as an incredible place to stargaze.
Figuring out orbital positions from orbital elements
A few times a year I find myself confronting a table full of numbers describing the orbits of things in the solar system, and cursing at myself because I've forgotten, again, what all these numbers mean and how to manipulate them to get the particular numbers I want.
Where are the big Kuiper belt objects?
Earlier today I wrote a post about how to calculate the position of a body in space from its orbital elements. I'm trying to get a big-picture view of what's going on in trans-Neptunian space.
The Scale of the Universe, by Cary and Michael Huang
Cary and Michael Huang present a basic
Dawn images of Vesta! Released!! For everyone!!!
Some time in the last few days, the Dawn team made public the first preliminary version of the first release of their data from the Vesta phase of their mission.
Infographic: Viewing our universe's colors
An infographic explains in what
Visiting the San Diego SpaceUp Unconference
Emily Lakdawalla and I drove down to the 3rd annual San Diego SpaceUp Unconference on February 4. We had great fun hanging out with the other space geeks.
NASA Budget Pushes Science to the Brink
Today, NASA announced its budget for its fiscal year 2013. As you might imagine, there are large budget cuts. But, the planetary science program has been cut disproportionately. NASA's allocations are out of balance.
Comparing Chang'e 2 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter maps of the Moon
How does the LRO lunar map compare with the new Chinese product from Chang'e 2?
Checking up on Jupiter and Saturn
It's amateur astronomers, not professionals, who are shouldering the burden of constant monitoring of the weather on Jupiter and Saturn. What's going on these days in the outer solar system?
Photos and video: Bill Nye at the 2012 White House Science Fair
On Tuesday, Bill Nye was privileged to attend the second White House Science Fair. Here are some photos and video of the event.
Put New Horizons on a stamp
A week ago, the New Horizons team announced an effort to gather signatures in support of a petition to the U.S. Postal Service to commemorate the historic flyby of Pluto on a stamp.
In memory of Susan Niebur
Planetary scientist Susan Niebur passed away on February 6, 2012, of inflammatory breast cancer. While I did not know Susan very well personally, I knew her professionally as a staunch supporter of and passionate organizer for young people, women, and families in planetary science.