Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twenty-first door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this rumpled blanket?

Emily Lakdawalla

Ordinarily it's not my thing to do so many updates on a mission that failed to arrive in orbit, but I know that it's difficult for English-speaking readers to locate information on Asian missions so I'm keeping up the reporting on Akatsuki.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twentieth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this diffuse blob and stripy sea?

Emily Lakdawalla

Unless you live under a rock you probably know that there is a total lunar eclipse tonight, one that should be particularly favorable for viewing from North America but which will be at least partially visible to viewers in South America, Europe, and easternmost Asia and Australia too.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the nineteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these folded rocks?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the eighteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this brush-stroked surface?

Emily Lakdawalla

The Hayabusa update is brief: having opened the first Hayabusa sample return chamber (compartment A) last month, JAXA has now opened compartment B, and they found nothing inside.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the seventeenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these strange promontories?

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the sixteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this widespread fan?

Emily Lakdawalla

The Planet Hunters website, like Zooniverse's other projects, is very, very easy to get up and running.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the fifteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this cratered world?

Emily Lakdawalla

Don't blink when you play the video below -- it's only 15 seconds long, but it's so cool.

Emily Lakdawalla

Today Opportunity has driven to within 20 meters of Santa Maria crater, and the blocks around it are really, really cool-looking. This one is a dead ringer for the severed tail of an alligator.

Emily Lakdawalla

Until the New Year, I'll be opening a door each day onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these red freckles?

Emily Lakdawalla

Opportunity is on a kilometers-long eastward road trip across Meridiani Planum toward the rim of a large ancient crater named Endeavour; it'll be many months yet before she gets there.

Emily Lakdawalla

Just after Akatsuki missed entering orbit, another spacecraft, IKAROS, quietly passed by Venus.

Emily Lakdawalla

I had planned to be in San Francisco today to present at the 2010 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, in an Education and Public Affairs session.

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the thirteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these parallel gouges?

Emily Martin

There is really cool geology being explored on large, oddly shaped asteroids. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission reached 433 Eros in 2000, and one of the exciting results was the discovery of features called

Emily Lakdawalla

Time to open the twelfth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this trapezoidal mountain?