by Emily Lakdawalla
Emily Lakdawalla
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Follow the thrilling adventures of planetary missions, past and present, and see the stunningly beautiful photos that they return from space!
Emily Lakdawalla • December 30, 2011 • 2
Investing in NASA makes us smarter, improves our lives, and increases our capability to overcome technological challenges. Even more important, though, are the intangible benefits of pride, respect from other nations, respect for our place in the universe, and hope for a future in which we can accomplish even greater things.
Emily Lakdawalla • December 29, 2011
There will be no planetary launches in 2012, but there is still plenty of deep-space activity to look forward to over the coming year.
Emily Lakdawalla • December 28, 2011
The twin GRAIL spacecraft are nearly at the end of their three-month cruises to the Moon. Currently being discussed is an extended mission for GRAIL that would begin after the June eclipse and last through most of December 2012.
Emily Lakdawalla • December 27, 2011
Just a few of the amazing photos of Comet Lovejoy that have been taken from the southern hemisphere over the last few days. Comet Lovejoy is the first Kreutz sungrazer to have been discovered from the ground in 40 years, and after its surprising survival of its passage close to the Sun, it has been putting on a spectacular show in southern skies.
Emily Lakdawalla • December 22, 2011
Cassini flew close by Dione on December 12 and, as usual, the close pass provided opportunities for lots of dramatic photos, not just of Dione, but of other moons wandering by in the background.
Emily Lakdawalla • December 21, 2011
When I posted about the really cool Cassini SAR images of Enceladus a few weeks ago, I initially wrote that this was the first-ever SAR image of an icy moon other than Titan. Several people (some readers and two members of the Cassini science team!) corrected that statement: Cassini has performed SAR imaging of other icy moons (including Enceladus) before.
Emily Lakdawalla • December 20, 2011 • 1
A large team of researchers has announced in a Nature article the discovery of not one, but two, Earth-sized planets orbiting a star named Kepler-20. This article separates the observational facts from the quite-likely-to-be-true inferences from the downstream speculations.
Emily Lakdawalla • December 19, 2011
The Hasbro my3D viewer turns your phone into an electronic View-Master, making it easy to view color images in stereo.
Emily Lakdawalla • December 16, 2011
Abigail Fraeman took third place in the Washington Post's 2011 Style Invitational edible-art contest with her entry, "MalloMars Rover: Search for S'more Data."
Emily Lakdawalla • December 15, 2011
A summary of a new article by Matt Tiscareno about planetary ring systems that reviews the known ring systems of the four giant planets and the prospects for ring systems yet to be discovered.
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