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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
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.
Find pics and track the rovers in Google Mars
I think a goodly proportion of you readers have already figured this out for yourselves since it was launched last March, but I didn't download and install it until last weekend, so this is new to me: Google Mars is awesome.
Dawn Journal: Thruster Two's Time to Shine
Dawn is outfitted with three ion thrusters, assigned the heartwarming names thruster #1, thruster #2, and thruster #3.
A Space Carnival (#140) and some new names for Enceladus
This week the Carnival of Space is over at one of my favorite new blogs, Lights in the Dark. Actually it's not so new -- evidently this week marks its first anniversary!
Pretty picture: Opportunity around Concepcion
Here's a neat picture from Opportunity, a panorama composed of its wide-angle, mast-mounted Navcam cameras, showing the crater Concepcion.
Endeavour Launch Ignites Night Sky
Planetary Society volunteer Ken Kremer is reporting for us from the Kennedy Space Center, where he is covering the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, set to launch this weekend.
WISE has found its first comet, P/2010 B2 (WISE)
Having discovered its first asteroid on January 12, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has now officially discovered its first comet, P/2010 B2 (WISE).
Manic Monday: Chocolate Hills, Io, and NASA's budget
Although I am not suffering under the
That's a lot of motion for a "stuck" rover!
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory posted a video to YouTube today showing what seems to be a remarkable amount of motion out of Spirit lately, especially given that she's supposed to be a
New maps of Pluto show pretty amazing amounts of surface change
I just posted my writeup of today's press briefing on a new map of Pluto produced from Hubble images. The main conclusion was that Pluto has shown an astonishing amount of changes across its surface between 1994 and 2002 -- more, in fact, than any other solid surface in the solar system.
Way-cool Martian flyovers by Doug Ellison
Doug Ellison has been playing with Martian digital terrain models recently, to great effect.
Hooray! Cassini's tour has been extended for SEVEN MORE YEARS!
NASA has just announced that once Cassini's Equinox Mission runs out in June of this year, they will extend it a further seven more years, long enough for the spacecraft to see Saturn through its solstice!!