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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Mercury: a moon-scale body
As I wait for the MESSENGER Mercury Orbit Insertion webcast to start, I thought I'd fiddle with some images to point out that Mercury is a bridge between the scales of planets and the scales of moons.
A Planetary Society Trifecta
A Planetary Society trifecta -- that's what Neil Tyson calls this episode of his StarTalk radio show broadcast this week. His guests include the Society's Vice President, Heidi Hammel, and its Executive Director, Bill Nye, (along with the Society's friend, Steve Squyres, Principal Investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers).
The Solar System from the Inside Out - and the Outside In
Space probes grant us perspective, the ability to see our place within the vastness of the solar system. But opportunities to see all of the solar system's planets in one observation are rare. In fact, there's only been one opportunity on one mission to see the whole solar system at once, until now.
Door 8 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the eighth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this nearly flat plain?
Final set of Voyager Mission Status Bulletins: The Voyager 2 Neptune flyby and beyond
I'm surprised no one's emailed me demanding the last batch of Voyager mission status bulletins! Well, here they are.
Neptune from two slightly different perspectives
Coincidentally, two new images of Neptune were posted today, from two very different sources.
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!
Hubble turns 20
Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. It's hard to believe it's been going strong for so many years.
Report #2 from the New Horizons Science Team Meeting
The second report by Ted Stryk from the New Horizons science team meeting, focusing on the search for Kuiper belt object (KBO) targets.
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 31: Uranus
Did you think I was going to skip Uranus? How could I?
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 18: Neptune
Here's Neptune, but not quite like you've ever seen it before.
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 17: Proteus
Proteus is a weird name for this world. It's the second-largest moon of Neptune, and so it's named (as are all of Neptune's moons) for deities associated with the sea.
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 10: Triton
Welcome to the tenth post in my
Planetary Radio Q and A: Not-so-gassy giants
On Planetary Radio's
LPSC: Thursday: Rovers, Titan, Mars, Venus Express, Neptune
I spent a large portion of the day at the Lunar and Planetary Institute's library and presented my own poster during the poster sessions, so my coverage of Thursday's sessions is limited.
Yet another active world: Charon
I've just posted a news story on a recently published paper that suggests that Pluto's moon Charon may have active ice volcanoes.
Voyager's Last View
Home. Family. This will be Voyager's enduring legacy: It has changed forever the feelings raised by those words. Through its robotic eyes we have learned to see the solar system as our home. Through its portraits of the planets we know that they are part of our family. Apollo astronauts showed us a tiny Earth alone in the blackness of space. Now, with these images, Voyager has shown us that Earth is not really alone. Around our parent Sun orbit sibling worlds, companions as we travel through the Galaxy.