Articles

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

The Two Faces of Phoebe

Cassini flew past Phoebe on June 11, 2004, on its way to entering Saturn orbit. The flyby was almost perfect but overexposure of some images have prevented color mosaics from being produced. Even though Phoebe's body is gray and dull in color, the absence of color images always provoked me. By using VIMS data, I have now produced color mosaics.

Outcrop on north side of Moonlight Valley, Curiosity sol 538

Curiosity Update, sols 534-540: Over Dingo Gap, onto softer sand

After more than two months of very slow driving due to concern about the wheels and time spent choosing whether to enter

New Hills, Old Secrets

Exploring a set of newly named hills on Mars reveals tantalizing clues to the planet's story.

Looking Backward: Curiosity gazes upon the setting Earth

A few days ago, Curiosity looked westward after sunset and photographed Earth setting toward the mountainous rim of Gale crater.

View from the top of the Dingo Gap Dune, Curiosity sol 533

Curiosity update, sols 521-533: Assessing Dingo Gap

While continuing to perform regular wheel health assessments, Curiosity took a sharp right turn and headed for Dingo Gap. On sol 533, they performed a

The Faces of Mars

Portraits of a planet.

Curiosity Mastcam panorama of the valley beyond Dingo Gap, sol 528

Beautiful view into the valley beyond Dingo Gap, Curiosity sol 528

A beautiful Mastcam panorama from sol 528 shows a landscape so much more like Earth than anything we've explored on the Martian surface before.

LADEE spotted by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter!

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has managed to snap a photo of the other current lunar orbiter, LADEE, at the Moon.

Curiosity update: imaging the nonfunctioning REMS boom, closer to Dingo Gap

At long last, on sol 526, Curiosity imaged the part of the weather instrument that was damaged during landing, but no obvious damage is visible, to me anyway. On sol 527 they drove even closer to Dingo Gap, with plans to drive onto the dune in the sol 528 drive.

The Giant Spider of Mercury

Striking terrain discovered by the MESSENGER probe.

Curiosity images "Dingo Gap," sols 519-521

Over the last few days, Curiosity made steady driving progress to the southwest. For several of those days, an intriguing feature has appeared on the horizon in her images. UPDATE: The Curiosity team has now decided to drive the rover toward the feature, which is now named

Before-and-after comparison of M82 supernova

Super-close supernova in M82

The astronomy world is all a-twitter this morning over the discovery of a new supernova in M82, a galaxy that's in our astronomical backyard,

Colorized Curiosity panorama, late afternoon of sol 514

Curiosity update, sols 488-520: Steady driving while watching the wheels

In the last month, Curiosity put 222 meters on the odometer in 12 short drives, while regularly assessing the wheels for damage. The rover performed touch-and-go analyses of rocks including Oneida and Kodak, and also took some ChemCam RMI mosaics of rocks near the base of Mount Sharp.