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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Einstein still rules
News from 7.2 billion light years away demonstrates that some things in this shifting universe are relatively reliable.
What's up in the solar system in November 2009
There are two -- actually three -- big things to look forward to this month.
Arizona Daily Star reports MRO managers working to avoid "unlikely but potentially fatal scenario"
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been in safe mode for nine weeks, since August 26, the date of the fourth in a series of safing events.
HiRISE sees Phoenix in the Martian spring
These Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE images of the defunct Phoenix lander in the early dawn light of northern spring have been out for some time, but no one had accomplished the difficult task of locating the Phoenix hardware in them until this week.
Gorgeous high-res image of the Apollo 17 landing site
The LROC team posted today a new image of the Apollo 17 landing site, captured after Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter had gotten in to its 50-kilometer mapping orbit, so this is much more detailed than the previous view.
Optical SETI's Growing Capabilities
Often, the phrase “next steps” has been known to describe things that don't actually happen. But for The Planetary Society's All-sky Optical SETI, it's different. Here's what's happened in the last year.
What "phase angle" means
As is probably obvious by now, I love playing with spacecraft image data. I am always looking for excuses to dive into space image archives to unearth images of stuff in space that haven't really been seen by very many people before.
Request for input: Any interest in tutorials on space imaging?
I am toying with the idea of running a series of classes via Ustream on the basics of space image processing.
Carnival of Space #126, plus more from Jupiter's moon Io
The 126th Space Carnival is live over at Jason Perry's always-excellent (if rather narrowly focused) Io blog The Gish Bar Times.
Send your name to Venus with Venus Climate Orbiter (PLANET-C), now known as Akatsuki
The Japanese space agency's science missions have an abundance of names. They start out with a programmatic name, like MUSES-A, PLANET-A, etc. -- which might be like calling NEAR
Last Chance for Bargains at The Planetary Society Store
We are preparing to have a brand new online store with new and different merchandise; to that end, we are clearing out EVERY LAST BIT of our old store inventory.
Augustine Committee Final Report
The Augustine Committee, which is reviewing the U.S. human space flight program, presented its final report today at a NASA press conference.
Spinning spokes in Saturn's rings
Here's a neat animation captured last month by Cassini and assembled by Mike Malaska: spokes in Saturn's B ring.
Window onto an abyss: Cave skylight on the Moon
This just in: researchers on JAXA's Kaguya lunar orbiter have discovered an open pit on the Moon that is likely a window onto a sublunar world -- a skylight into a subsurface cavern.
Saturn shadows shift with the seasons
So many goodies on the Cassini raw images website lately! I am especially excited when Cassini takes photos through red, green, and blue filters so that it's possible to create views that look roughly like what you'd see with your own eyes.
Fun for Sunday: Titan and Tethys pas de deux
Checking in on Cassini's raw images this weekend, there are several nice shots to play with, including the many frames from which I tossed together this cute animation.
Opportunity's world of dunes and rock
Opportunity's been making tracks lately, with brief stops to check out a couple of meteorites. I thought this view of its surroundings on sol 2,034 (a couple of days ago) was neat.
Here comes Rosetta!
Heads up! ESA's Rosetta comet-chasing mission is going to buzz by Earth again in less than a month.
Rhea, Enceladus, Mimas, and Tethys, oh my!
With the last Titan flyby on October 12, Cassini came back to an orbit that's nearly in the equatorial plane, and immediately rewarded us with some fine views of several of the icy moons. Here are a bunch of images of those moons.
A brief word on Saturn's radius
I've had two people write in to correct my Phoebe ring post from yesterday.



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