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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
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!
Cassini eyes Janus
Four times a year, the Cassini mission releases three months' worth of data gathered from Saturn and its moons to NASA's Planetary Data System.
Observing the Martian Atmosphere for Two Mars Years
June 29, 2010 was the second Martian anniversary of the start of Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) observations at Mars.
3D Anaglyph: Troughs or vents in Cerberus Fossae?
OK, it's time to look silly in your red-blue glasses again! When Tanya Harrison sent me those awesome 3D views of Olympica Fossae from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's CTX camera, she sent me two other sets of 3D landscapes on Mars.
Rosetta's Lutetia pictures
I saw these pictures for the first time just 10 minutes before boarding my flight back home, and forced myself to download everything I could find as quickly as possible without pausing to actually look at them.
Rosetta Lutetia flyby successful; approach images posted; high-res images yet to come
All appears to be going very smoothly on Rosetta through, and after, its flyby today of asteroid (21) Lutetia.
Where to watch the Rosetta flyby of Lutetia
A quick post to gather information on where to watch the events of today's flyby of asteroid (21) Lutetia by Rosetta.
Lutetia -- and Saturn!!
A quick post of just one of the gorgeous images from Rosetta's flyby of Lutetia today; for more, see the Rosetta Blog. But this one was just too pretty to wait for.
Rosetta's Lutetia navigation campaign complete
Rosetta's most important job over the last few months has been to observe how the position of asteroid (21) Lutetia shifts against the background of fixed (fixed, that is, as far as Rosetta can see) stars.
JAXA confirms acceleration of IKAROS solar sail by photon pressure
The Japanese space agency reported on their web site today that acceleration of the IKAROS spacecraft by solar pressure has been confirmed.
Where my stories come from
The stories I write about originate in space, of course, but as I was wrestling with what to write about in the couple of weeks before my vacation, it occurred to me that a lot of you might not know what tends to trigger space writers to choose what to write about.
A brush painting for Hayabusa
Upon James Aldridge's return from Japan, he posted several albums worth of amazing photos, including several of their calligraphy instructor, well-known artist Aiko Tanaka, creating a gestural brush painting to commemorate Hayabusa's return.
Three days to Lutetia for Rosetta!
On July 10, 2010, at 15:44:56 UTC, the Rosetta spacecraft will fly within 3,162 kilometers of the largest asteroid yet visited by a spacecraft.
Sharpest-ever images of Daphnis
As promised last week, Cassini has delivered its best photos yet of the tiny moon Daphnis, the ringmoon that is responsible for carving out the skinny Keeler gap at the outer edge of Saturn's A ring.
A look inside the Hayabusa sample capsule
A very brief item posted on the Hayabusa website included two pictures of the interior of its sample return capsule, one of which shows a particle.
Back to Apollo? Or Time for a Restart?
To see the bigger picture, it can help to step back a bit from your current position. Sometimes you need to consider the past to inform your vision for the future.



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