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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
An official pronouncement may be coming about the "what is a planet?" debate
Since the discovery of 2003 UB313, larger than Pluto, there's been a lively debate going on in many places about what makes a planet. There's now an article in Nature talking about a proposal that would address the controversy
DPS: Updates on 2003 EL61 and 2005 FY9
At a press briefing, the co-discoverers of the so-called
DPS: Back to Day 3 again: finishing up asteroids & Iapetus
Today is the last day of DPS, and the first that has not had a press conference session at lunchtime, so I have a few moments here to do some catching up.
An animation of Itokawa from Hayabusa
This lovely animation of Itokawa represents 20 individual images taken between 18:10 on September 5 and 00:30 on September 6, from a distance of less than 700 kilometers away.
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants (17 August 2005)
Following last year's Potentially Hazardous Asteroid and a few other non-main-belt discoveries, I looked into what improvements I could make to more efficiently image the sky. The major advance involved the design of a 3-lens corrector comprising 2 stock lenses and a custom lens I made myself.
Deep Impact Sets a New Course as Tempel 1 Returns to Normal
With its mission at Tempel 1 over, the Deep Impact spacecraft has altered its course in order to allow a future mission at another comet.
Deep Impact Data Surprises Scientists
When Deep Impact crashed into the nucleus of Tempel 1 at 23,000 miles per hour on July 4, it sent a huge, bright cloud of stuff upward and outward from the comet, providing a spectacular image that is already assured a place in the space history books, and may well be seared into the brains of all those who watched the event.
Another gorgeous Deep Impact image
The team has just released a really pretty high-resolution view of Tempel 1 just 67 seconds after the impact.
Deep Impact Comet Crash Produces Great Big Comet Flash
The Deep Impact mission seems to have produced an impact crash beyond the expectations, but not the hopes, of the science team.
Notes from the morning-after press conference
Here in Von Karman auditorium at JPL, as they get ready for the press conference, they are playing
Views of Tempel 1
It looks like the European Space Agency was busy overnight -- lots of great Earth- and space- based images of the impact have been appearing on various websites.
Deep Impact live blog
Live blog from the press room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as Deep Impact's Impactor meets its fate at the comet....
The Deep Impactor is safely on its way!
I woke this morning to find a press release in my Inbox that said:
Deep Impact On Course for Comet Crash; Mission Is Already Producing Science Returns
NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft is set for its date with Comet Tempel 1.
News: All of Earth's Eyes Are on Tempel 1 as Deep Impact Zeroes In on Comet...
With four days remaining until Deep Impact crashes into comet Tempel 1, the comet is looming larger and larger in the public view.
Astronomers Revise Torino Scale Asteroid Advisory System
Astronomers have revised the Torino scale, the color-coded advisory system to assess the threat of asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs) to make it easier for the public to understand.
Pluto: The Discovery of a Planet
To mark the 75th anniversary of the discovery of the planet Pluto, The Planetary Society presents to its readers the remarkable story of the discovery.
The Discovery of a Planet, Part 6: From Pluto to Sedna
74 years after Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto as a faint dot on a pair of photographic plates, a modern group of astronomers made another remarkable discovery. On March 15, 2004, Michael Brown of Caltech, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory, and David Rabinowitz of Yale announced the discovery of Sedna – the furthest object ever detected in the Solar System.