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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Door 19 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the nineteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these folded rocks?
Door 18 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the eighteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this brush-stroked surface?
Updates on Hayabusa and Akatsuki: second chamber opened, possible engine nozzle breakage
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.
Door 17 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the seventeenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these strange promontories?
Door 16 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the sixteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this widespread fan?
Help to hunt for planets!
The Planet Hunters website, like Zooniverse's other projects, is very, very easy to get up and running.
Door 15 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the fifteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this cratered world?
Opportunity drives within 20 meters of Santa Maria, spots alligator's tail
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.
Phobos Photobomb
Don't blink when you play the video below -- it's only 15 seconds long, but it's so cool.
Opportunity: "So close we can taste it" to Santa Maria
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.
IKAROS flew past Venus on December 8
Just after Akatsuki missed entering orbit, another spacecraft, IKAROS, quietly passed by Venus.
Door 14 in the 2010 advent calendar
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?
Talk at AGU today: "Snapshots from Space"
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.
Door 13 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the thirteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these parallel gouges?
Boulders and Ponds on 433 Eros
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
Door 12 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the twelfth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this trapezoidal mountain?
Door 11 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the eleventh door in the advent calendar. Until the New Year, I'll be opening a door onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these sinuous ridges?
Akatsuki update: Failure to enter orbit due to insufficient fuel pressure
An English-language article in the December 11 Yomiuri Shimbun summarizes the news from the Akatsuki press briefing held at 11:00 December 10 JST (last night, my time). It's succinct and clear so I'm reposting it here.
NanoSail-D Mission Status Update
Here's the latest from the NASA site about NanoSail-D.
I'll be presenting at the American Geophysical Union Meeting next week
I'm going to just one day of the enormous annual American Geophysical Union meeting next week, and I am actually presenting a talk!



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