Articles

Tyler Nordgren

With Mars at opposition once again, astronomers around the world will soon be looking up for our best telescopic views of the Red Planet. But next weekend, I and a group of scientists will be turning our gaze downward for views of that alien planet.

Emily Lakdawalla

Here are two perfect examples of Voyager 2's amazing untapped treasures.

Mat Kaplan

Have you heard it?

Emily Lakdawalla

ESA announced this morning that the launch of their BepiColombo mission, a cooperative effort with JAXA, has been delayed from its originally planned July 2014 to the backup launch window in August 2015.

Marc Rayman

Dawn is continuing its exploits at Vesta, performing detailed studies of the colossal asteroid from its low altitude mapping orbit (LAMO).

A.J.S. Rayl

There's no hail or snow or sleet, though it is the depth of winter at Meridiani Planum and a cold unimaginable to us has gripped the landscape.

Mat Kaplan

The second episode of Emily Lakdawalla's new video series reveals the gigantic library of solar system images captured by NASA spacecraft, and explains why we've seen so few of them. Emily says they're all online, waiting for space geeks to turn them into gold.

Emily Lakdawalla

There is an ever-expanding bubble announcing Humanity's presence to anyone listening in the Milky Way.

Garry Hunt

Garry Hunt brings a distinctive perspective to the now-raging debate over the cuts to NASA's science program proposed in the Administration's fiscal year 2013 budget.

Emily Lakdawalla

A new paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets by Dombard, Cheng, McKinnon, and KayI claims to explain how Iapetus' equatorial ridge formed. Cool!

Jim Bell

Recent deep funding cuts by the Administration and Congress for NASA's space exploration programs are turning the final frontier into an ever-receding dream.

Emily Lakdawalla

It took Don Davis many hours of meticulous labor to assemble this beautiful postcard from Mars.

Jason Davis

Just because you live in an urban area with skyglow doesn't mean you can't have fun with astrophotography. How to capture the planets, constellations and the ISS.

Mat Kaplan

This is the first episode of editor Emily Lakdawalla's new video series exploring the solar system.

Emily Lakdawalla

On June 30, Dawn stopped thrusting for a full Vestian day -- five hours and 20 minutes -- and just watched the asteroid rotate. But unlike the previous observations, they used all of Dawn's color filters to acquire the best-ever color photos of the lumpy world.

Emily Lakdawalla

I'm not encouraging people to search individual images for the Mars Polar Lander anymore, for three reasons.

Emily Lakdawalla

Cary and Michael Huang present a basic

Emily Lakdawalla

Earlier today I wrote a post about how to calculate the position of a body in space from its orbital elements. I'm trying to get a big-picture view of what's going on in trans-Neptunian space.

Emily Lakdawalla

A few times a year I find myself confronting a table full of numbers describing the orbits of things in the solar system, and cursing at myself because I've forgotten, again, what all these numbers mean and how to manipulate them to get the particular numbers I want.

Neil Patrick Stewart

The International Dark Sky Association designated Big Bend as an International Dark Sky Park, confirming its status as an incredible place to stargaze.