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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Venus: Not so neat and tidy as we thought
Pioneer Venus discovered a stable
Opportunity rolls up to Oileán Ruaidh
Opportunity is continuing to make tracks toward Endeavour crater, but just because she's got a goal for her road trip doesn't mean she won't stop and smell the flowers from time to time. Er, did I say
Deep Impact approaching Hartley 2
The Deep Impact spacecraft team has released a third image from their approach to comet Hartley 2, and for me, three images is an invitation to make an animation!
Pretty picture: Europa and Jupiter
Photos like this always make me think about how unimportant size is in determining whether one of the worlds of the solar system is an exciting place.
Seeing Curiosity
I've been itching to get back to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to get a good look at Curiosity, the next Mars rover.
It's International Observe the Moon Night
Hey everybody, go out and look up at the Moon! It's International Observe the Moon night.
An unusual Hubble photo of Mars
Amateur image magician Ted Stryk dug up this lovely view of Mars, captured on May 9, 2003 by the Hubble Space Telescope. This photo is unusual for its relatively high phase.
Beyond Earth T-shirt features 23 space missions
Let other geeks have their T-shirts with fictional space explorers -- now you can emblazon your chest with 23 space missions that have really explored space!
Gale Crater Geomorphology Paper - Published!
Big news folks! The huge paper that I've been working on for the last couple years is finally, unbelievably, published!
Update from the Ozma@50 Workshop
Frank Drake used the 85' radio telescope at Green Bank to conduct the first modern Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in 1960. Using a very simple receiver and no computers, he listened to each of two sunlike stars for 100 seconds. Call that unit 1 Ozma.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter press briefing: silicic volcanoes on the Moon
I'm listening to a press briefing from several members of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter science team, regarding three papers published today in Science.
Opportunity's rocky road ahead, good news for an aging rover
What a difference a couple of months of driving make. Here's the sort of view of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's road ahead that I'm accustomed to, taken two months ago.
Mars As Art
Attention Mars data trawlers! NASA Headquarters is looking for community input on an exhibition and book of
The Voyager Mission Updates
We take for granted now the ability to get detailed mission updates in a timely fashion via the Web. But How did people get their mission status before the Web?
Carnival of Space #169
The 169th Carnival of Space is live over at Next Big Future. Check it out!
Book review: Older Than the Stars
Older Than the Stars is a book about Big Bang cosmology, solar system formation, and human evolution for young children.
More from the Ozma@50 Workshop
Today's sessions at the Ozma@50 conference stretched the mind as these multidisciplinary gatherings usually do.
Browse the Cassini RPWS data set
Periodically, usually after I've posted some images pulled out of an image archive, a reader asks me:
Mars Exploration Challenge Launches Today
The explorers who will someday walk on Mars are in school today. Exactly who they are, we don't yet know. But we do know that they are among the students who are captivated by the wonders of science and the challenges of engineering.
365 Days of Astronomy Podcast: The Flight of Hayabusa
Today the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast aired my contribution, The Flight of Hayabusa, a recap of that dramatic mission.