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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Russia's Mars 3 lander maybe found by Russian amateurs
Виталий Егоров (Vitaliy Egorov) is a Russian space enthusiast who enlisted help of fellow enthusiasts to search for -- and maybe find -- the Russian Mars 3 hardware on the Martian surface. Here he explains how he did it.
Planetary Society Weekly Hangout: The Ice Giants, with Heidi Hammel
My guest this was Planetary Society Board vice president Heidi Hammel. We discussed two planets near and dear to our hearts, Neptune and Uranus. What's new on these icy worlds since Voyager 2 passed by, and what are the prospects for their future exploration?
Blast from the Past: Spirit's tracks at the "End of the Rainbow"
Doug Ellison shared this lovely panorama via Twitter over the weekend. It's from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, taken back in 2004. The drunken path in the foreground is a visual record of just how exciting it was for Spirit to have finally made it to the Columbia Hills, and to rocks that were not fragments of basalt.
Pretty pictures: Gliding flight for SpaceShipTwo
Some beautiful photos of a recent gliding flight test of SpaceShipTwo.
Better conference talks
I've been to a lot of conferences and seen a lot of talks and it's amazing to me how a bad presentation can get in the way of really exciting science. Here are my recommendations for how to approach a talk, and tips and tricks to make your talk better.
Robot Shaming
Some silly fun to brighten your Wednesday.
Book Review: Cosmochemistry, by Harry McSween and Gary Huss
This very accessible textbook begins at the beginning, explaining how all the things in the solar system were made from star stuff.
ISRO's Mars mission now undergoing assembly and testing; NASA, ISRO agree to future space science cooperation
India's Mars Orbiter Mission has been much in the news in Asian media over the last week as a result of the release of ISRO's Annual Report 2012-2013. Also, ISRO and NASA issued a joint statement from Washington a week ago endorsing interagency cooperation in the space sciences
Curiosity update, sol 227: Some sharpshooting and a dusty deck
Curiosity is back to science operations, though the activities are limited in scope by the fact that conjunction is fast approaching. Here's a couple of neat images from sol 227.
An editorial on the LPSC 2013 oral sessions
In which I complain just a little bit about talks at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Planetary Society Weekly Hangout: Reports from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
On Thursday at noon PDT / 1900 UTC I'll report on some of my favorite findings from LPSC, and answer your questions about the latest planetary science.
LPSC 2013: watery Martian minerals
Some interesting results from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference on clay minerals on Mars and what they might mean about ancient water.
LPSC 2013: License to Chill (or, the solar system's icy moons)
Reports from the March 19 session at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference covering eight icy moons in the outer solar system: Ganymede, Europa, Dione, Rhea, Mimas, Tethys, Enceladus, and Miranda.
LPSC 2013: The Smaller They Are, The Better They Shake
Really cool movies from Jim Richardson propose to explain how the same physics of impact cratering can produce such differently-appearing surfaces as those of the Moon, large asteroids like Eros, and teeny ones like Itokawa.
LPSC 2013: Do we have a meteorite from Mercury?
Before yesterday, my answer to this question would be
LPSC 2013: Sedimentary stratigraphy with Curiosity and Opportunity
A mind-boggling quantity of information is being presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. In my first report from the meeting, I try to make sense of the Curiosity and Opportunity sessions.
Reports from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
I depart tomorrow for Houston and the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). Here's a look at how to follow the meeting on social media, and where to find me if you're also attending.
Planetary Society Weekly Hangout: Being WISE about asteroids, comets, and brown dwarfs with Amy Mainzer
This week I'll be talking with NEOWISE principal investigator Amy Mainzer about moving objects that the WISE mission has spotted both inside and outside our solar system.
Checking in on Jupiter
We don't have any spacecraft at Jupiter right now, which is a pity. Until we do, we have to rely upon Earth-based astronomers to monitor the changing face of the largest planet.
Yes, it was once a Martian lake: Curiosity has been sent to the right place
The news from the Curiosity mission today is this: Curiosity has found, at the site called John Klein, a rock that contains evidence for a past environment that would have been suitable for Earth-like microorganisms.