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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Photos: India's Mars Orbiter Mission arrives at launch site
ISRO posted five photos from the momentous day of the Mars Orbiter Mission's shipment to Sriharikota.
Government shutdown closes 3 of 4 National Radio Astronomy Observatories
The shutdown of the federal government continues to claim casualties. Today, the Green Bank Telescope, Very Large Array, and Very Long Baseline Arrays all shut their doors, blinding us to the radio sky and scuttling long-term research projects.
The 45th Division for Planetary Sciences meeting, Oct 6-11, 2013
The annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society begins on Sunday and runs for a week in Denver, Colorado. I'll be attending all week, bringing you the latest news from across the solar system.
Google+ Hangout with ESA about Europe's Mars exploration
The European Space Agency invited me to join Mars Express project scientist Olivier Witasse, and spacecraft oeprations manager Michel Denis for a Hangout on Europe's recent and future exploration of Mars and Phobos.
Super cool Phobos and Deimos animations from Mars Express
I've been delving in to the Mars Express image archive this week, checking out its images of Phobos, and found a couple of really cool time-series of images to assemble into animations.
Yes, there seems to be a hole in Curiosity's left front wheel, and no, that's not a problem
Some brand-new images just arrived from Curiosity on Mars, and two of the most recent are Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) images of the wheels. Today's images contained two little surprises.
LADEE has finally left Earth
When LADEE launched on September 6, it launched into Earth orbit. Today, it is finally on a path that will take it to its October 6 lunar orbit insertion. Its operation is continuing normally in the face of the U.S. government's shutdown yesterday, as is that of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter achieves imaging of comet ISON from Mars
Yesterday, the much-anticipated comet ISON made its closest pass by Mars. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera is the first to achieve a positive detection of the somewhat-fainter-than-expected comet in its photos.
On Gandhi's birthday, India ships Mars spacecraft to launch site
Several Indian news sites posted a press wire article this morning indicating that India's Mars Orbiter Mission departed its assembly and testing facility in Bangalore today and is now on the way to the coastal launch site, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, a journey of about 400 kilometers.
American government shut down, but JPL and APL planetary missions still operating -- for now
I spoke with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Veronica McGregor and the Applied Physics Laboratory's Geoff Brown this morning to get accurate information about the operation of NASA planetary missions.
Relative and absolute ages in the histories of Earth and the Moon: The Geologic Time Scale
A few days ago, I wrote a post about the basins of the Moon -- a result of a trip down a rabbit hole of book research. Here's the next step in that journey: the Geologic Time Scales of Earth and the Moon.
Dating the Moon's basins
A paper in press in the Journal of Geophysical Research uses new data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to update our story for the history of the Moon's massive impacts.
More fancy Phobos and Deimos photography by Curiosity
Curiosity looked up after dark and captured more cool photos of Mars' moons. They include Phobos and Deimos passing in the night, and Phobos entering Mars' shadow.
Photos and Video of India's Mars Orbiter Mission, proceeding toward October 28 launch
Indian media reported over the weekend that the Mars Orbiter Mission has passed some senior review, and has been approved to proceed toward a launch date of October 28, a week later than previously planned.
Book Review: Rock Star: Adventures of a Meteorite Man, by Geoff Notkin
Rock Star -- the memoir of television
The Deep Impact Mission is officially over
Efforts to regain contact with Deep Impact have been ended. The last contact with the spacecraft was on August 8, 2013.
ICE is returning to Earth; but do we have the will to regain control?
After a journey of more than 30 years, ICE is coming back to Earth next year. But do we know how to regain control of it, and can we find the means to do so?
Two new ways to browse Vesta: 2. Vesta Image data browser
A few weeks ago I received an email pointing me to a really cool new map-based browser to Dawn's Vesta image data.
Two new ways to browse Vesta: 1. Vesta Low-Altitude Mapping Orbit (LAMO) Atlas
Last week was the European Planetary Science Congress in London, and there's been a lot of science news. One thing that caught my eye Friday was the publication of a new atlas for Vesta.
LADEE checkout phase successfully completed!
Some good news to start your weekend: the newest member of our deep-space fleet, LADEE, has successfully completed its checkout phase and is now officially in its cruise phase. It is still in Earth orbit, headed for Lunar Orbit Insertion on Sunday, October 6.