Articles

Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.

Dawn Journal: Ion thrusting (or not)

Marc Rayman gives the latest update on the Dawn mission, focusing this time on the performance of its ion propulsion system.

A (Difficult) Day in the Solar System

After a bad day on the launch pad, some perspective.

Comet jets from close range, October 18, 2014

A feast of comet features from Rosetta at Churyumov-Gerasimenko

I have been horribly behind in posting images from Rosetta's exploration of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and that's a shame, because the spacecraft has lately been exploring the comet from a range of only 10 kilometers. From that range, the NavCam gets sub-meter resolution, and we're seeing a menagerie of odd surface features

Rosetta NAVCAM's Shades of Grey

What do “light” and “dark” mean for an object like Comet 67P/C-G? Here are some details on how Rosetta's NAVCAM images are taken and displayed to make a wide range of surface features possible.

Herschel observations of Comet Siding Spring initiated by an amateur astronomer

The European satellite Herschel acquired images of Comet Siding Spring before its death in 2013 — thanks to an observing proposal from an amateur astronomer!

Artist's concept of comet Siding Spring passing Mars

Status update: All Mars missions fine after Siding Spring flyby

All seven Mars spacecraft are doing perfectly fine after comet Siding Spring's close encounter with Mars.

Collaboration Between OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2

The University of Arizona (UA) hosted representatives of the Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return mission to explore opportunities for collaboration with the OSIRIS-REx team.

Watching Siding Spring's encounter with Mars

The nucleus of comet Siding Spring passes close by Mars on Sunday, October 19, at 18:27 UTC. Here are links to webcasts and websites that should have updates throughout the encounter.

Finally! New Horizons has a second target

What a huge relief: there is finally a place for New Horizons to visit beyond Pluto. A team of researchers led by John Spencer has discovered three possible targets, all in the Cold Classical part of the Kuiper belt. One is particularly easy to reach. New Horizons would fly past the 30-45-kilometer object in January 2019.

Field Report from Mars: Sol 3808 — October 10, 2014

Opportunity will become a comet flyby mission beginning in mid-October. The comet Siding Spring will zoom past Mars at a distance of about 135,000 km on October 19.

Mars Orbiter Mission shifts orbit to take cover from Siding Spring

With only 10 days remaining until the arrival of Comet Siding Spring at Mars, ISRO has shielded the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) from the comet. On Tuesday MOM’s orbit was altered so as to move it behind the Red Planet when the comet arrives. MOM will carry out observations of the comet and its Mars Colour Camera will click images of it.

High-resolution global view of Vesta in natural color processed from archival data

What did Dawn learn at Vesta?

It's now been two years since Dawn wrapped up its work at the second-largest asteroid. What else did we get from the Vesta encounter besides great photos? Recently, I asked Dawn's deputy project scientist, Carol Raymond, for help in summarizing a few of the big things Dawn taught us.