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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Juno is on the way to Jupiter!
It almost looked like it wasn't going to happen today, but it did! At 16:25 UTC, a huge Atlas V 551 lifted off with the Juno spacecraft and sent it on its way to Jupiter.
Junocam will get us great global shots down onto Jupiter's poles
Juno is a mission that will peer deeply into Jupiter's interior, and didn't really need to take a visible-light camera along in order to accomplish its scientific goals. But I think nobody could bear sending a spacecraft to Jupiter without getting pictures from up close. So they added Junocam.
Fun for the whole family: Watch an enormous rocket blast a spacecraft to Jupiter!
Do you have kids at home for the summer? Treat them to a spectacular fireworks show by tuning in tomorrow morning to watch Juno blast off to Jupiter!
Pretty picture: five moons for Cassini
Explaining how to combine the red, green and blue images from a recent Cassini image session containing five of Saturn's moons: Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas and Rhea.
What I see in the first high-res Dawn images of Vesta
I had to wait until the kids were in bed and the husband fed last night before I finally had time to sit down and really look at the Dawn images of Vesta. And I still hardly knew where to begin. This brand new world is just so different than others I've seen.
On speculation in today's Dawn press briefing
When a spacecraft has visited a new body for the first time, the usual answer to any scientific question is
August Means Summer Recess for Congress But Let's Keep Up the Pressure for Space
Is this the time to forget about political action? No! It's time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards) and write to your local newspaper proclaiming your support for space exploration.
Fabulous Dawn Vesta images and rotation movie!!
Now that Dawn's close enough to Vesta, we're seeing absolutely spectacular detail and tremendous diversity across Vesta's surface. As usual it'll probably take me a while to bring together all the new information, so as a stopgap I'm going to post an awesome image and a rotation movie.
Jupiter's southern belt is coming back
In a story that I've been following for quite a while, Jupiter's southern equatorial belt, having faded to white in 2009, is now well on its way back to its former red glory.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Closes in on Endeavour as Team Bids Farewell to Spirit
Opportunity seemed to sail with the wind behind her back toward the western rim of Endeavour Crater this month as the Mars Exploration Rover team shifted gears in preparation for a whole new adventure, taking time out only to bid a final farewell both privately and publicly to Spirit.
Mountains rising for Opportunity
The views from Opportunity of Endeavour's near and distant rim peaks are getting ever more vertical as Opportunity approaches Cape York.
What's up in the solar system in August 2011
August is supposed to be a lazy summer vacation month, but there's quite a lot going on in the solar system.
Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 have completed thermal vacuum testing
The Russian Phobos sample return mission, Phobos-Grunt, has passed a key milestone in its preparation for launch: it successfully completed its thermal vacuum testing in June.
A different face of Vesta (oh, *there's* the craters!)
Here's the latest image release from Dawn at Vesta, taken from an altitude about twice as high as that of their first mapping orbit.
What's up in human spaceflight: a Dragon approaches
Private spaceflight company SpaceX has secured tentative approval with NASA to combine its next test flight with an actual ISS docking.
Origins 2011 conference, part 2
In this, my second blog on Origins 2011 in Montpellier, France, a conference dedicated to the interdisciplinary research on the origins of life, I aim to provide my impression of the second half of the conference.
Pretty movie: Everything in the Saturn system is in motion!
A few weeks ago a producer for a public television space documentary asked me if I knew of any cool Cassini animations and my answer was,
Dawn Journal: Dawn has arrived!
After covering 2.8 billion kilometers (1.7 billion miles) on its own, after traveling for nearly four years through the lonely emptiness of interplanetary space, after being bound by the gravity only of the sun, Dawn is finally in orbit around Vesta.
It's official now: Curiosity is going to Gale
The news leaked a few weeks ago has turned out to be true: the next Mars rover, Curiosity, will be headed for Gale crater on Mars when it launches at the end of this year.
Planetary Society Statement on the Pioneer Anomaly
Planetary Society Members have been supporting Slava Turyshev and his colleagues in their scientific quest to solve the famous Pioneer Anomaly. They have just published a peer-reviewed paper that reports on what may be the last step toward the solution.