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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
High tau for Spirit and Opportunity
Over the weekend I fiddled with the
Mimas, Dione, Rhea
There's been quite a lot of Mars on this page for the last week; it's time to remind ourselves that there are other places besides Mars in the solar system.
New territory on Titan
The other day I posted a global view of Titan featuring new territory near the north pole. Now the imaging team has released a much higher resolution version of this view.
Many Cassini views of Tethys
Here we bring you fifteen different Cassini views of the same world, a cratered ball of ice called Tethys.
Twilit (probable) lakes near Titan's north pole
This is a cool picture that was released a couple of weeks ago by Cassini's camera team.
Tvashtar erupting -- the movie
I practically fell out of my chair when I saw this movie.
Cassini observes a new face of Iapetus
Cassini has just begun its 44th orbit of Saturn (called Rev 43), and is starting it off with lots of views of famously two-faced Iapetus.
Dione's south pole
Cassini got a nice
Io and Europa glimpsed by a retreating New Horizons
This image is beautiful for many reasons. It was captured by the MVIC imaging spectrometer, part of the Ralph instrument, on New Horizons, as it left the Jupiter system on March 2, 2007.
Io erupts, in color
The last one of New Horizons imaging instruments has finally checked in with a lovely image from the Jupiter flyby
LPSC: Tuesday: Volcanism and tectonism on Saturn's satellites
I received this report on the Tuesday afternoon special session on volcanism and tectonism on Saturn's satellites from Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer from the University of Virginia who I first met at the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in 2005.
Another amazing Io image from New Horizons
The Tvashtar eruption continues to amaze. All this time between Galileo and New Horizons, Io's volcanoes have probably continually produced spectacular eruptions like these.
Cassini's global views of Saturn and its rings
Since late January Cassini has been acquiring several sets of images that show all of Saturn's globe and ring system at once from perspectives well above and below the ring plane.
Saturn from above (2007)
OK, I had planned to confine my posts this week to Rosetta and New Horizons, but I could not let these images sit on my computer until next week.
New Horizons sees Io erupting!
There were two new pictures posted on the New Horizons Science Operations Center website this morning, of Io, and if you enhance the images a bit, there are two clear volcanic plumes visible on the limb -- Tvashtar and Prometheus are active!
Rosetta Was Here
This amazing view was captured by the CIVA camera on Rosetta's Philae lander just four minutes before its closest approach to Mars on February 25, 2007. The spacecraft was only 1,000 kilometers above the planet.
A new way to darken Iapetus
Iapetus is one of the many fascinating bodies in the Saturn system.
Saturn from above, in color
I wrote recently about a set of images of Saturn acquired by Cassini from a unique vantage point, well above the planet, looking down on the rings. Someone has taken up the challenge of assembling the 36 different images into a single mosaic, in color, and it is as lovely as I'd hoped.
A cool Cassini ring plane crossing animation
Another recent, cool set of images that came down from Cassini was a series taken last week as the spacecraft crossed the ring plane.
New Horizons' raw images are now online
I got an email from John Spencer this morning telling me that the mission had posted all of New Horizons' most recently acquired images on the mission website.



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