The Planetary Report • January/February 2008

Jupiter's Changing Face

On the Cover: This view of the tumultuous region just left of Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a cropped and enlarged portion of the most detailed global color portrait ever produced of the giant planet. <i>Cassini</i> took the images that constitute the global mosaic on December 29, 2000, during its closest approach—a distance of about 10 million kilometers (6.2 million miles). Although <i>Cassini's</i> camera can see more colors than humans can, the colors in this view are very similar to what our own eyes would see.

Features

4 Global Upheaval on Jupiter: Change is Good! Amy Simon-Miller looks at the violent weather on our solar system's largest planet.

9 Titan's North Polar Seas: Emily Stewart Lakdawalla looks at Titan's hydrocarbon lakes.

10 Cassini at Iapetus: A Bumpy But Successful Flyby: Tilmann Denk discusses the difficulties with flying by Iapetus.

Departments

17 World Watch NASA's 2008 budget; the space shuttle and ISS

18 We Make it Happen! Astronomy in the national parks

19 Members' Dialogue The Pioneer Anomaly; exploring space

20 Q&A Did the Kebira impact cause mass extinction on Earth?

20 Factinos Venus Express sees lightning on Venus; Voyager 2 enters the heliosheath; exoplanet atmospheres

22 Society News Planetfest '08

The Planetary Report • January/February 2008

View Table of Contents

Help advance space science and exploration! Become a member of The Planetary Society and you'll receive the full PDF and print versions of The Planetary Report.