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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
The Voyager Mission Updates
We take for granted now the ability to get detailed mission updates in a timely fashion via the Web. But How did people get their mission status before the Web?
Pretty picture: Crescent Dione
I was busy with other projects today, so today's post just asks you to look at this gorgeous three-image mosaic of a crescent Dione, taken during Cassini's most recent flyby a week ago.
Early warning for close approaches of two house-sized asteroids
Most of you have probably heard by now of two small asteroids, both in the neighborhood of 10 meters in diameter, recently discovered on trajectories that pass unusually close to Earth.
Deep Impact snaps first image of flyby target comet Hartley 2
Deep Impact is rapidly approaching its next -- and final -- target, comet Hartley 2, which it will fly by on November 4.
Two natural bridges on the Moon (now with 3D!)
Imagine this landscape: you're walking across an unusually smooth lunar surface, an impact melt sheet on the floor of a relatively recently formed crater.
Neptune from two slightly different perspectives
Coincidentally, two new images of Neptune were posted today, from two very different sources.
Special report by Bill Nye from the VEXAG Meeting
Is Venus the forgotten planet, or just one that's hard to figure out?
Fly over Saturn's icy moons
A couple of weeks ago Paul Schenk posted a few really cool videos to his personal blog. Paul's subspecialty is the topography of icy moons, and he's been doing a lot of work on the moons of Saturn lately.
Getting to the real science image data: It's not that hard!
If I have to, I will drag reluctant people one at a time to plunge into NASA's Planetary Data System.
Possibly the best view of the Great Red Spot ever
This is a new, big mosaic of Voyager 1 images, this time showing the Great Red Spot at high resolution.
New Flickr collection of historical NASA photos
NASA announced today that they had placed several new sets of historical photos on their
Jupiter's swirling storms from Voyager 1
Amateur image mage Björn Jónsson has recently turned his attention back to Voyager 1's close-up images of Jupiter.
A first look at distant hills
Rover fans have been excitedly watching the hills on Opportunity's horizon grow taller and taller as Opportunity rolls toward its destination, Endeavour crater.
The August 20, 2010 Jupiter fireball -- and the March 5, 1979 one
Following up on the story I first posted on August 22, the Jupiter impact fireball first noticed by Japanese amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa has been independently confirmed by two other Japanese astronomers.
Yet another Jupiter impact!? August 20, seen from Japan
This may be a very common event after all: another optical flash has been observed on Jupiter, again from an observer far east of the Greenwich meridian, though it was not Anthony Wesley (for once).
Exposing Io's true colors
Thanks to its active volcanic activity and sulfur-rich surface, Io is one of the most colorful worlds yet seen in the Solar System, save the Earth of course
MESSENGER: A snapshot of home
MESSENGER is in a unique position in the solar system, orbiting the Sun well within the orbit of Venus. From there, it can gaze outward from the Sun to search for tiny objects that may possibly be traveling in the same region, called vulcanoids.
Weekend treats from Cassini: Enceladus plumes plus bonus Tethys and Dione
Over the last couple of days Cassini flew past Enceladus, Tethys and Dione, so there are lots of treats to see on the raw images website! You should go check it out for yourself, but here are a couple of real favorites.
2008 LC15, the first Trojan asteroid discovered in Neptune's L5 point
Congratulations to Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo for identifying the first known L5 Trojan asteroid of Neptune!
