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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Mars Orbiter Mission images Mars' moons, including the far side of Deimos
Today I'm excited to show you some previously unreleased images from Mars Orbiter Mission, containing Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Completes 11th Year of Surface Operations!
On January 24th, something wonderful happened on Mars. Opportunity completed her 11th year of exploring the surface of the Red Planet! The veteran rover couldn't exactly go to Disneyland to celebrate this amazing achievement, so she did what she loves to do – roved on.
Flawed Beauties
More examples of imperfect--but tantalizing--images from deep space.
Field Report from Mars: Sol 3902 - January 15, 2015
Larry Crumpler gives an update on the status of Opportunity's traverse toward Marathon Valley.
Curiosity update, sols 814-863: Pahrump Hills Walkabout, part 2
Curiosity has spent the last two months completing a second circuit of the Pahrump Hills field site, gathering APXS and MAHLI data. The work has been hampered by the loss of the ChemCam focusing laser, but the team is developing a workaround. Over the holidays, the rover downlinked many Gigabits of image data. The rover is now preparing for a drilling campaign.
Beagle 2 found?
What happened to Beagle 2? It's been a mystery for 11 years. That mystery appears to have been solved.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Closes in on 11th Anniversary and We Look Back on 2014
With a wonder year of discoveries, historic feats, and bummers in the rear view mirror – and plenty of mettle to continue exploring – Opportunity ended 2014 quietly working in a temporary back-up mode, as her colleagues on Earth ramped up for the mission's marathon adventure to come in 2015.
HiRISE image coverage of the Curiosity field site on Mars, Version 2.0
There have been tons and tons of HiRISE images of the Curiosity landing region, and it has taken quite a lot of work for me to find, locate, and catalogue them. This post is a summary of what I've found; after four revisions and updates, it's now version 2.0 of the list.
Field Report from Mars: Sol 3875 – December 18, 2014
Opportunity is continuing its drives along the rim of Endeavour toward Marathon Valley. Larry Crumpler tells us what to expect as the rover continues its journey.
Curiosity results from AGU: Methane is there, and it's variable
At the American Geophysical Union meeting, the Curiosity mission announced that an instrument had finally definitively detected methane in Mars' atmosphere. It exists at a low background level, but there was a spike to about ten times that, which lasted for a couple of months before disappearing. What that means is unclear.
Like A Bad Penny: Methane on Mars
With the announcement of Curiosity's detection of methane on Mars, Nicholas Heavens gives us a guide to the history of methane detection on Mars, a discussion of its scientific significance, and a few things to consider when hearing about and asking about the detection.
New Views of Ancient Martian Landscapes
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter just keeps delivering remarkable scenes from the Red Planet.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Roves from Wdowiak Ridge into Network of Fractures
Last month, the Earth's longest-lived and most traveled robot on another planet drove into a network of fractures the likes of which the scientists had never seen before on Mars and wound up working there through the end of the month – and then something not completely unexpected happened.
Some Recent Views of Mars from Hubble
Ted Stryk showcases some of his processed versions of recent Hubble Space Telescope views of Mars.
Field Report from Mars: Sol 3848 — November 20, 2014
Larry Crumpler returns with an update on Opportunity's recent activities, and its road ahead.
Curiosity update, sols 782-813: Walking the outcrop at Pahrump Hills
At Pahrump Hills, Curiosity is becoming the field geologist she was intended to be.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Images Comet, Ducks Storm, Departs Ulysses
As winds whirled and converged to the west of Endeavour Crater, Opportunity's power dropped dramatically in October, but the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) pressed on. By month's end, the robot field geologist had completed her assignments – including capturing the first close-in shot of a comet from the surface of the Red Planet – and was roving onward through the darkness, driving the mission into the 130th month of what started out more than 10-and-a-half years ago to be a 3-month tour.
Seven Mars spacecraft attempted observations of comet Siding Spring. How did they go?
It's been two weeks since comet Siding Spring passed close by Mars, and six of the seven Mars spacecraft have now checked in with quick looks at their images of the encounter. I round up all the results.
A (Difficult) Day in the Solar System
After a bad day on the launch pad, some perspective.
GSA 2014: The puzzle of Gale crater's basaltic sedimentary rocks
At the Geological Society of America conference this week, Curiosity scientists dug into the geology of Gale crater and shared puzzling results about the nature of the rocks that the rover has found there.