Articles

Jason Davis

With Hayabusa2 at Ryugu and OSIRIS-REx closing on Bennu, it's the summer of sample return. Why do scientists go to so much trouble for a piece of a another world?

A.J.S. Rayl

As a monster dust storm grew to encircle the Red Planet in June, Opportunity spent most of the month in the dark, presumably sleeping in a hibernation mode as the skies over Endeavour Crater became darker and darker.

Jason Davis

A little-known observatory is s helping usher an Arab astronomy renaissance.

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily Lakdawalla is on vacation from 1 to 22 July. Jason Davis will reign over the blog in her absence.

Emily Lakdawalla

Hooray! Curiosity has triumphantly returned to drilling with a successful drill and delivery to its lab instruments at a site named Duluth. It's now studying the dust storm as it drives to new drill sites on Vera Rubin ridge.

Jason Davis

The Shoemaker NEO Grant program funds advanced amateur astronomers who help determine if nearby asteroids will hit Earth. Here are some collected reports from our asteroid hunters.

Emily Lakdawalla

On 26 June 2018, Hayabusa2 arrived at its target asteroid, Ryugu. In a very brief status update, I present comparisons of Ryugu to other previously visited asteroids and comets.

Bruce Betts

The Planetary Society presents a list of Frequent Asteroid Questions (FAQs).

Emily Lakdawalla

Ryugu has continued to grow in Hayabusa2's forward view, resolving into a diamond-shaped body with visible bumps and craters! They've done hazard searches, optical navigation imaging, and measured the rotation rate at 7.6 hours.

Jason Davis

How dangerous are near-Earth asteroids, and what will we do if we find one headed toward Earth?

Jason Davis

Hayabusa2 continues to approach asteroid Ryugu, revealing the 900-meter-wide world in all its glory.

Casey Dreier

The Senate and House have now released details of how they would fund NASA in 2019. Check out the good, bad, and ugly in these proposals and learn what happens next.

Melissa Lane

Petrology is a field of science in which scientists study the compositions of rocks and minerals and interpret their geologic history. A common graph petrologists use is the “pyroxene quadrilateral.” These graphs, like photos of space, can reveal an understanding of the remotest parts of the solar system.

Luyuan Xu

It took 24 days for Queiqiao to reach an Earth-Moon L2 halo orbit.

Marc Rayman

Propelled by the perfect combination of xenon ions, hydrazine rocket propellant and adrenaline, Dawn is on the verge of its most ambitious exploits yet.

A.J.S. Rayl

Entrenched in the west rim of Endeavour Crater, veteran robot field geologist Opportunity is hunkered down in Perseverance Valley in a kind of hibernation mode.

Emily Lakdawalla

Hayabusa2 is now less than 1000 kilometers away from Ryugu, and the tiny asteroid is beginning to betray its shape.

Jason Davis

See the world through the eyes of Longjiang-2.

Emily Lakdawalla

NASA's OSIRIS-REx will get the first sight of its target Bennu in August and go into orbit in December.

Jason Davis

NASA is providing an instrument for the mission, which will try to uncover the origins of Phobos and Deimos.