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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Hubble to the rescue! The last-ditch effort to discover a Kuiper belt target for New Horizons
Will New Horizons have a mission after Pluto? Ground-based searches have failed to turn up anything that New Horizons can reach. Now Hubble is joining the search, but time is running out: a discovery must be made within the next two months.
Dawn Journal: Survey Orbit at Ceres
This month Dawn's mission director Marc Rayman continues the preview of how Dawn will explore Ceres, this time in its survey orbit.
The Planetary Society Supports NASA's Asteroid Initiative
The Planetary Society strongly supports NASA's asteroid initiative, including the goal of redirecting an asteroid to the vicinity of the Moon. But an independent cost estimate is needed, and needed soon.
Deep Impact's last images
Today I received an email notification of new public releases of some image data sets. I always love seeing new public space image data, but this notification was bittersweet: it included the first public release of the very last image data returned to Earth by Deep Impact, of a distant comet ISON.
Will we find signs of tectonics on Pluto? And what would that mean?
Joseph O’Rourke summarizes a recently submitted paper on tectonic activity on Pluto after the Charon-forming impact.
Pretty pictures: Rosetta's comet is now acting like one!
New photos from ESA's comet-chaser show its destination comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, developing a coma.
New Horizons: Updates From the April 2014 Science Team Meeting
New Horizons team member Simon Porter reports on the state of the mission and Pluto system science from the recent science team meeting at the Applied Physics Laboratory.
Highlights From OSIRIS-REx Science Team Meeting #6
The OSIRIS-REx Science Team gathered at the University of Arizona from April 22–24, 2014 for their sixth meeting. Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta discusses a few of the highlights.
When will we know which is bigger, Pluto or Eris?
We don't currently know whether Pluto is the biggest thing in the Kuiper belt or not. When will New Horizons give us the answer?
This is the post where you can comment about the IAU planet definition
An attempt to corral the discussion of the IAU planet definition in one place on planetary.org, so that we may be free to actually discuss Kuiper belt observations and scientific results on posts elsewhere on this site.
Green Bank Telescope Helps Out an Old Friend
The Green Bank Telescope has been called into emergency service to play radar ping-pong on a close-by asteroid with Arecibo Observatory’s 100-meter William E. Gordon radio telescope.
Spitzer Space Telescope Observations of Bennu
What can studying the thermal emission of Bennu with the Spitzer Space Telescope tell us about its physical properties?
Forensic Ballistics: How Apollo 12 Helped Solve the Skydiver Meteorite Mystery
What can a 45-year-old mission to the Moon tell us about a
Arecibo Observatory operational after repairs to fix earthquake damage
Early in the morning on January 13, 2014, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck beneath the Atlantic Ocean north of Puerto Rico, damaging Arecibo Observatory, the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope. The telescope is now operational after repairs and scientists have resumed observations. However, the future of Arecibo Observatory remains unclear due to funding uncertainties in the federal budget.
Opposition time for Mars, and several months of dancing with the stars
The Mars Express team showcases some of the best viewing opportunities of Mars in 2014, including how to spot Comet Siding Spring when it flies past Mars this October.
More excitement in the outermost solar system: 2013 FY27, a new dwarf planet
On the heels of last weeks reports of a second Sedna and a ringed Centaur comes a third cool outer solar system discovery: A new, likely large member of the Kuiper belt. With an absolute magnitude of about 3.0, the new object currently known as 2013 FY27 is the tenth brightest object beyond Neptune .
Comet Siding Spring Mars encounter: Cosmic bully spotted by ESA and NASA
Hubble has taken some great new images of our 'friend,' Comet Siding Spring, due to pass by Mars at less than 136,000 km on October 19 – less than half the distance between Earth and our moon.
Hangout on Air: Why yesterday was a good day for Solar System Science
On Wednesday, March 26, two important discoveries in the outer solar system were announced: the discovery of the second confirmed member of the Inner Oort Cloud (2012 VP113) and the discovery of rings around the planetesimal Chariklo. In a Hangout on Air, a rag-tag group of planetary scientists and astronomers active on Twitter talked about the discoveries.
A Centaur’s shadow reveals bright rings
Yesterday, a team of astronomers announced that they discovered a set of planet-like rings around Chariklo, an asteroid-like body that currently resides in the unstable region between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus.
Comet spotted! Rosetta's first sight of Churymov-Gerasimenko since wakeup
Rosetta has turned on its cameras and sighted its comet for the first time since waking from hibernation. Next activity: waking the Philae lander.