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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Sits with Steering Glitch, Opportunity Makes Tracks Toward Burn's Cliff
The worst of the Martian winter is over for the Mars Exploration Rovers, but the robots' own dark days appear to be looming as Spirit hits a 'bump' that's kept her at a standstill for a week now.
Close Your Left Eye, Then Your Right: Simultaneous Observations of Asteroid 4179 Toutatis from Two Chilean Telescopes Demonstrate Parallax
This morning, asteroid 4179 Toutatis was so close to Earth that simultaneous observations from two telescopes in the same country could show parallax that is obvious even to the least experienced observer. The two telescopes belong to The European Southern Observatory and are located at La Silla and Paranal in Chile
Very Close Approach by Asteroid 4179 Toutatis: It's Not a Crisis, It's an Opportunity
On Wednesday, September 29, Earth will dodge a cannonball: the Near-Earth Asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis will buzz by at a distance only four times the distance from the Earth to the Moon -- about one and a half million kilometers, or about a million miles. But, as the wisdom goes,
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit and Opportunity Roving Again as NASA Extends Tours of Duty
After nearly two weeks of sparse, infrequent communication, Spirit and Opportunity have survived winter solstice and resumed
Scientists from Different Fields Line Up to Join the BOINC Family
BOINC stands for the “Berkeley Online Infrastructure for Network Computing.” Its purpose is to spread the credo of distributed computing beyond SETI@home, by making it easy for researchers in all fields to launch their own projects, and tap into the enormous computing capacity of personal computers around the world.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Roves onto "Best" of Martian Bedrock, Evidence of "Much More Water" as Opportunity Uncovers Bizarre Geologic 'Popcorn'
During the last four weeks, the Mars Exploration Rovers have braved the Martian winter to continue their geologic field work, sending home more evidence of past liquid water on the Red Planet and images of bizarre geologic formations the likes of which no one has seen before.
Multi-Beam Receiver Promises New Vistas for SETI Research
Faster and more regular sky surveys, at an increased sensitivity and broader bandwidth, will push the boundaries of SETI to new and unexplored territories.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Finds Hematite Opportunity Discovers Signs of More Water
As the Martian winter descends on Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum, the Mars Exploration Rovers have hit the snowless slopes.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Rovers Go Up Hills, Down a Crater, and May be Showing Signs of Age
The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity continue their trek across the varied surface of the Red Planet, climbing hills and descending into a crater. After a two-month journey of over 3 kilometers through rocky terrain, Spirit has now begun climbing the Columbia Hills, which were seen on the horizon in the early panoramas taken from the landing site. The rover is expected to spend much of its remaining life climbing the hills and analyzing their geological make-up. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Opportunity is carefully descending into the stadium-sized depression dubbed
Netlander Mission Cancelled
Due to funding difficulties within the French space agency, CNES, the Netlander mission has been officially canceled.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Uncovers More Evidence of Water Opportunity Prepares to Rove into Endurance Crater
The Mars Exploration Rovers are each entering new chapters in their extended missions that are already returning more intriguing discoveries, but they are both beginning to slow down now as the Martian winter closes in on them.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Closes in on Columbia Hills Opportunity Heads Back to Karatepe
During the last three weeks, the Mars Exploration Rovers have been continuing to rove and explore their respective regions of Mars. Spirit has continued her trek to the Columbia Hills in the Gusev Crater area of Mars, while on the other side of the planet, at Meridiani Planum; Opportunity has been investigating Endurance Crater.
Pulses, Triplets, and Gaussians: Rescoring the Reobservations
It has been more than a year since the SETI@home crew spent a hectic week at Arecibo, pointing the giant radio telescope at some of SETI's most promising targets. Much of the data collected during the reobservations has since been repackaged as work units, and sent out to users around the world for analysis.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Makes Tracks to Columbia Hills Opportunity Cruises into Extended Mission
As Spirit continued her journey to the Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater, Opportunity cruised into her extended mission at Meridiani Planum this week, marking the milestone of the rovers' Martian adventure -- full mission success.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Gets 'Kicks' on Route 66 Opportunity Solves Martian Mystery
This week, the Mars Exploration Rovers team successfully installed the new flight software it was uploading to Spirit and Opportunity last weekend. Now, the rovers have enhanced capabilities that should make their remaining Martian sols even safe and more productive, announced Jan Chodas, flight software manager, at the weekly news briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants (16 April 2004)
2003 was a good year with 50,779 asteroid astrometric observations submitted, including known NEOs and the discovery of a new Aten-class object, 2003 UY12. Based upon the volume of astrometric observations submitted, observatory code 683 was the world's eighth most productive asteroid astrometry station.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: NASA Approves Extended Missions Spirit & Opportunity Receive Upgrades
As the Mars Exploration Rovers achieved new milestones on the Red Planet this week, NASA approved a plan to extend the missions for both Spirit and Opportunity to mid-September.
Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Spirit Finds Hints of Water in Mazatzal Opportunity Finds Hints of Hematite in Bounce Rock
The Mars Exploration Rovers continued to crank out scientific findings about Mars this week: Spirit sent home clues of past ground water at Gusev Crater; Opportunity set a one-day distance driving record and returned to the scene of her arrival, the rock she bounced off on upon landing at Meridiani Planum.