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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Parks for Winter, Opportunity Tastes Chocolate Hills
As winter put the freeze on in the southern hemisphere of the Red Planet, the Mars Exploration Rovers slowed down a bit, but continued throughout February to demonstrate the mettle that made them famous: Spirit successfully drove backwards, parked in place for the season, then continued working, as Opportunity roved through rock debris on a cruise around the rim of Concepcin Crater.
In Houston
Despite the best efforts of many different kinds of gremlins, I have managed to arrive in Houston to attend the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, at least the first 2.5 days of it.
Dawn Journal: Forever Farther From Earth Than the Sun
Pushing ever farther into space, deeper into the asteroid belt, Dawn is continuing to progress smoothly on its solar system journey.
Welcome news on DSN upgrades
I've written before about a serious problem looming for planetary exploration: the aging infrastructure of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN).
What's up in the solar system in March 2010
I am getting an early start on this month's
Cassini at Enceladus: Baghdad's Glowing Canyon
The Cassini mission released a pile of images today from the super-close flyby of Enceladus that happened on November 21.
Pretty picture: Mini-RF exposes lunar geology
There are all kinds of neat things to see in this recently released image from the Mini-RF synthetic aperture radar instrument aboard Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
A Chat on NASA, NEOs, and the Cost of Coffee on the Moon
We wanted to share a few highlights from Lou Friedman's and Bill Nye's UStream chat on The New NASA Plan.
Hello, snowman! (Cassini observes Iapetus)
I visited the Cassini raw images site today and was pleased to see another couple of sets of images have been captured on Iapetus.
NSRC: Engaging the Interested Public
I gave a presentation this morning to the Next-generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) on
Lovely album of photos from WISE
Today the Wide-field Survey Explorer (WISE) team released a small album of beautiful astrophotos.
Carnival of Space #141
Wander on over to StarryCritters for the 141st Carnival of Space!
Cassini tour page updated for the Solstice Mission
My enormously long page describing the details of Cassini's tour -- each and every Cassini orbit of Saturn -- is now updated to include the entire Solstice Mission, which doubles its length.
Cassini eyes the eyeball
On Saturday, Cassini flew within 9,500 kilometers of Mimas, the innermost of the medium-sized icy moons of Saturn.
Inside the U.N.'s Near Earth Object Working Group
This week Bruce Betts is attending a U.N. meeting in Austria, in particular the parts focused on international considerations of the near-Earth object threat.
Revolutionary NASA Solar Explorer Roars to Space
Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer reports for us from the Kennedy Space Center, where he is covering the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, set to launch this weekend.
Calypso coolness
Cassini got pretty close to Calypso yesterday, on the way in to Mimas. Calypso is one of the smaller moonlets of Saturn.
Planetary Society Researcher Max Rocca Discovers Largest Impact Crater in South America
It was January of 2004 when the elegant curve of the Vichada first caught the attention of geologist Max Rocca of Buenos Aires. Could the course of the river have been shaped by the circular outlines of an impact crater? Rocca decided to find out.
Twenty years since Voyager's last view
On Sunday comes the twentieth anniversary of an iconic image from the Voyager mission: the
Hubble sees both of Saturn's aurorae
Yesterday, the European wing of the Hubble PR machine released this cool image of Saturn and its aurorae, with an associated video.