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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Dawn Journal: A Year from Vesta
Dawn is flying smoothly through the asteroid belt, now less than a year from entering orbit around Vesta, the first of its two cosmic destinations.
New crater found in LROC image from the Moon
This news is no surprise, but I think it's the first such discovery I've heard of: the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) team has identified a new crater on the Moon, one that wasn't there when Apollo 15 flew over.
New Horizons images Jupiter again
Three years after New Horizons flew past Jupiter on its way to Pluto, the spacecraft has imaged the giant planet again.
Voyager at Saturn, one year later
Here are two newly processed portraits of Saturn, showing the planet just after its equinox.
A little chuckle for your Monday morning
During Friday's first roll for Curiosity, there was a lot of banter in the Ustream chat room about all the bunny-suited engineers waving at the cameras and mugging for portraits with the rover. One chat room member,
LightSail team learns from IKAROS
While we were in New York for the International Solar Sailing Symposium last week, we held a meeting with the Japanese IKAROS team to discuss technical results and issues in our two projects.
Curiosity rolls!
Enjoy my extremely low-tech animation of Curiosity's first
A spectacular new global map of Mars, which YOU can make even better
I am such a nerd. This new map of Mars just brought tears to my eyes. Honestly.
Live camera on Curiosity in JPL clean room all day today
Tune in to Ustream right now to see Curiosity, the next Mars rover, on its wheels in the
Watching the birth and death of moonlets in Saturn's F ring
The Saturn system is always in motion, always changing. Saturn itself is a gas giant, with swirling storms, and like the other gas giants it has a host of moons flying around, perturbing each other's motions. And then there's the rings.
Color portrait of asteroid 21 Lutetia
Since it doesn't look like the Rosetta mission is going to be releasing any color versions of their Lutetia close-encounter images any time soon, I figured it was time to make one.
From the Solar Sail Symposium in New York
This week, Bill Nye and I are attending the International Solar Sail Symposium at the New York College of Technology.
Critical partnerships for the future of human space exploration
Exploring the current debate in the context of these three partnerships might help illuminate how future human expeditions beyond LEO will be carried out.tical partnerships for the future of human space exploration
Volcanism across the solar system: Io
Three months ago, grandiosely, I announced that I was going to survey volcanism across the solar system, and I began the journey on Earth. Then I failed to follow up.
Facebook conversion
I both love and hate Facebook. It's enabled me to reconnect personally with lots of long-lost friends from high-school and college, not just virtually but also helping me meet up with people as I travel. But despite the proliferation of Facebook presences of space missions and NASA centers, I've found it next to useless professionally.
The 163rd Carnival of Space is here at The Planetary Society Blog
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step right up to the greatest show off of Earth!
A bull's eye on the Moon
Orientale is the youngest large impact basin on the Moon, which means that very little of it has been obliterated by later impacts.
How does Lutetia compare to the other asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft?
Almost a week after Rosetta flew past Lutetia, the asteroid is now a distant pinprick of light to the spacecraft, and the science team is getting down to the business of analyzing their data.
Urgent action required: Please call Senators TODAY
It's time to make phone calls to support space exploration. We're sending the following letter to all our members today, and urge everyone reading this to pick up the phone and take action.
Carnival of Space #162
The 162nd Carnival of Space is live over at Skymania, so go check it out!



Sun
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Small Bodies