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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
New Google Mars
Google Earth's latest edition was just released and guess what? It has a Mars setting!
A pretty new Hubble image of Mars
A set of Mars image data taken by the Hubble Space Telescope a year ago was just released to Hubble's data archive. It was captured by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on January 30, 2008 when Mars was about 115 million kilometers from Earth.
Treasures from Mars' ancient history
In which I discover Earl Slipher's Mars: The Photographic Story.
What are the rovers up to? January 2009
Spirit's been getting some nice views of the spot it spent all of 2008 in,
What do we know about Uranus' moons? Part 1
I got an urge to dive in to the Voyager image archives and see what exactly we have here on Earth to base our understanding of the Uranian moons on.
The Santorini panorama
A tip of the hat to Ryan over at Martian Chronicles for posting this lovely version of the Santorini panorama, which Opportunity captured just before Mars dipped too close to the Sun in late November of last year.
A Moon Among Stars
A very pretty picture of a moon among stars. Happy 2009, everyone!
Opportunity and Spirit updates: Both are now driving
Another day, another drive: on sols 1,693 and 1,695 the Opportunity rover conducted two more lengthy drives to the south, totaling almost 200 meters. On the other side of the planet, Spirit is FINALLY in motion again.
Opportunity is really hitting the highway
Victoria crater, the site of a Mars year's worth of study, is now far over the horizon, as Opportunity has lately completed a series of very long drives. Opportunity is once again sailing the sand seas of Meridiani Planum.
Long drives at last for Opportunity (or, getting your kicks on sol 1,666)
It's been way, way, way too long since the view from either rover's cameras has changed very much. So I hope you'll join me in a shout of
Opportunity's got a long road ahead
Mars Exploration Rover principal investigator Steve Squyres announced on National Public Radio's Science Friday show the next goal for Opportunity, and it's a long, long, long way away: a huge crater about 12 kilometers southeast of its current location, which the team is referring to internally as
Three great new pages on Don Davis' website
Don Davis is a space artist who takes the question of color in space very seriously.
Looking back into Victoria crater
Here's another wonderful self-portrait silhouette by Opportunity.
Proof for liquids on Titan
A press release from the Cassini VIMS team today is titled
Welcome to the Solar System, Makemake
The trans-Neptunian object formerly known as 2005 FY9 now has a name:
More things to see in the amazing HiRISE image of Phoenix' descent
I have posted several times about the amazing photo captured by HiRISE of Phoenix under its parachute as it descended. There have been two common questions I've received about the photo: was there any color data taken, and what more can I tell you about how hard it was to take the photo? I've got answers to both questions for you today.
Opportunity route map update
Eduardo Tesheiner was kind enough to send me an updated version of his route map for Opportunity so we can get a sense of just how close the rover is getting to Cape Verde.
Beautiful mosaic of the Voyager mountains
One of my favorite amateur image magicians, Gordan Ugarkovic continues to play around with the amazing data recently released by the Cassini mission, covering the Iapetus encounter of last September. Here's a lovely mosaic he just put together of the Voyager Mountains.
Some beautiful video from the Spirit and Opportunity landing sites
A majority of the people who work in planetary geology are usually associated with one or maybe two missions, doing all their research on the results from one instrument on one mission. But there are a few people whose expertise cuts across many space missions, and an even smaller number of people who seem to work on almost everything. Randy Kirk is one of those people.
White Rock through the Ages: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006-present)
I apologize for the long hiatus in this White Rock series, but I hope this entry will be worth the wait.



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