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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Jupiter's faded belt: It's happened before, and it'll happen again
When I wrote a post about Jupiter's missing South Equatorial Belt in May, I had three main questions: how long did it take for the belt to go away, has this happened before, and how can a planet as big as Jupiter change its appearance so quickly?
IKAROS' deployable camera captures perfect sail photos and animation!
We've already seen IKAROS' view of its deployed sails from cameras attached to the spacecraft, but, in a brilliant idea, the Japanese built IKAROS with two deployable cameras that could view the thing from a distance.
Is this SMART-1's impact site?
Speaking of spacecraft crashing...
Amigurumi: How I channeled my adrenaline while watching Hayabusa's return
Covering the events of Hayabusa's return involved a lot of watching and waiting. Rather than go blind staring at my computer and cause carpal tunnel syndrome by excessively clicking the refresh button, I decided to...go blind and develop carpal tunnel syndrome by doing some crocheting.
Hayabusa update: First step for sample capsule return to Japan
Here are a few photos from a Flickr gallery from the Australian Science Media Centre documenting the Hayabusa sample capsule's first step in its journey from Australia to Sagamihara, Japan, where it will arrive on Friday.
Hayabusa update: Capsule retrieved, heat shield found
The major news on the Hayabusa mission this morning is that JAXA has retrieved the sample capsule!
Hayabusa sample capsule photographed on the ground in Australia
Oh my wonderful little flying saucer, you have been to an asteroid and back -- and you were burning like a star last night! And there you are, sitting quietly in the desert, just waiting to be retrieved...
Hayabusa's return: a review
Hayabusa's return: round up some of the amazing photos, movies, and artworks that were posted and shared and Tweeted and re-Tweeted over the previous dozen hours or so.
Welcome home, Hayabusa!
At 13:51 UTC, the Hayabusa spacecraft -- having traveled to an asteroid and back, surviving countless challenges-- broke up into a fiery meteor over the midnight, midwinter Australian sky.
3QD Finalist!
It looks like my MSL: Mars Action Hero post is a finalist in the 3 Quarks Daily science blogging contest. The winners will be chosen by none other than Richard Dawkins.
Preparing for Hayabusa's return
Only about 40 hours remain for the Hayabusa mission. Its dramatic entry will take place at 14:00 UTC on Sunday, June 13.
Titan's rivers are square
There's a new
IKAROS: Successful sail deployment and solar power generation! Hooray!!
JAXA finally issued the formal announcement: they successfully expanded IKAROS' square sail!
Big hunks of carbonate rock on Mars at last
Carbonate rocks should be all over Mars. But it's been hard to find carbonates—surprisingly so.
Hayabusa: Waiting
We're in the final days of the Hayabusa mission, but until Sunday I think we're in a state of
U.S. Citizens: Please write your elected representatives about restarting plutonium-238 production!
I'm hereby posting a request that was sent earlier today to members of the Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society by its chair, Candy Hansen.
Hayabusa's final approach on target; Japan's ready to receive samples
Hayabusa's final maneuver, a three-hour
Progress -- with pictures! -- on IKAROS' sail deployment
Several pictures from the sail deployment monitoring cameras showed up on the IKAROS blog overnight.
A brief history of Hayabusa
For those of you who found my Hayabusa mission recap too long, here's a graphical version of the history of the Hayabusa mission.
Hayabusa: "I did my best!"
While he was in Japan to observe IKAROS' sail deployment, Lou Friedman couldn't help but notice the country's excitement over the impending return of Hayabusa.