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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Door 18 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the eighteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this brush-stroked surface?
Updates on Hayabusa and Akatsuki: second chamber opened, possible engine nozzle breakage
The Hayabusa update is brief: having opened the first Hayabusa sample return chamber (compartment A) last month, JAXA has now opened compartment B, and they found nothing inside.
Door 17 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the seventeenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these strange promontories?
Door 15 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the fifteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this cratered world?
Opportunity drives within 20 meters of Santa Maria, spots alligator's tail
Today Opportunity has driven to within 20 meters of Santa Maria crater, and the blocks around it are really, really cool-looking. This one is a dead ringer for the severed tail of an alligator.
Door 14 in the 2010 advent calendar
Until the New Year, I'll be opening a door each day onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these red freckles?
Opportunity: "So close we can taste it" to Santa Maria
Opportunity is on a kilometers-long eastward road trip across Meridiani Planum toward the rim of a large ancient crater named Endeavour; it'll be many months yet before she gets there.
IKAROS flew past Venus on December 8
Just after Akatsuki missed entering orbit, another spacecraft, IKAROS, quietly passed by Venus.
Door 13 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the thirteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system are these parallel gouges?
Boulders and Ponds on 433 Eros
There is really cool geology being explored on large, oddly shaped asteroids. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission reached 433 Eros in 2000, and one of the exciting results was the discovery of features called
Door 12 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the twelfth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this trapezoidal mountain?
Door 11 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the eleventh door in the advent calendar. Until the New Year, I'll be opening a door onto a different landscape from somewhere in the solar system. Where in the solar system are these sinuous ridges?
Akatsuki update: Failure to enter orbit due to insufficient fuel pressure
An English-language article in the December 11 Yomiuri Shimbun summarizes the news from the Akatsuki press briefing held at 11:00 December 10 JST (last night, my time). It's succinct and clear so I'm reposting it here.
Door 10 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the tenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this jumble of bouldery fissures?
Come back, Venus.....
This image is so, so beautiful, and so, so sad.
Door 9 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the ninth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this jumble of boulders and fissures?
Akatsuki update, two days later
I've got two more pieces of information to share on Akatsuki further to what I posted yesterday. The first one is a worrying detail about what went wrong during orbit insertion.
Door 8 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the eighth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this nearly flat plain?
Akatsuki update, a day after the failure to enter orbit
JAXA held two press briefings about Akatsuki yesterday. Reports in both English and Japanese based on these press briefings have cleared up some, but not all, of the mystery about what happened and what is to happen with Akatsuki.
Akatsuki has failed to enter Venus orbit
There is a press briefing happening right now in Japan, and it's terrible news: Akatsuki failed to enter Venus orbit.