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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Mars and a moonbow
Moonbows represent the same phenomenon as rainbows, it's just that the light from the Sun has reflected off of the Moon first before it's separated into its colors by the myriad tiny water droplets in the cloud.
Your chance to shoot your own high-resolution pictures of Mars
The HiRISE public suggestion tool, called HiWish, is a Web site that allows you to log in and select a spot on Mars as a suggestion for where the HiRISE instrument should take an image.
Figuring out the shape of Mars (and other places)
An amateur named Bernhard Braun (
Buttoning up the Mars Orbiter Camera science investigation
The science team for Mars Orbiter Camera, or
Odyssey's going to start listening for Phoenix
It's been the second most popular question I get from readers:
Spirit's still "extricating"
It's been two months, now, that extrication efforts have been going on. It's discouraging that the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit isn't out of the trap.
Happy Christmas on Mars!
This was so cute I had to repost it -- and record it too.
Watch that front wheel spin!
Holy cow, look at that right front wheel spin. I am alternately amazed and horrified by this animation.
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 15: Mars
We have three orbiters and two rovers currently exploring Mars, each of which returns breathtaking photos on a daily basis.
Class announcement: How to play with Mars Express VMC images
Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I've been fiddling with images from the Mars Webcam, more officially known as the Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC), for the last couple of weeks.
A teeny weeny bit of movement in Spirit's right front wheel
The ever-vigilant Doug Ellison just posted this animation, which really actually does show a teeny tiny bit of motion in the right front wheel. If you don't notice any motion, look closer.
Awesome Mars Express view of Phobos and Deimos together
My inbox was exploding this morning with messages about a tremendously cool animation released this morning by ESA's Mars Express team. It shows Phobos crossing Deimos, in what's known as a
Encouraging motion on Spirit
It really looks like the second attempt at driving Spirit out of the trap has had the hoped-for result: some forward progress (maybe about a centimeter), and no evidence for further downward sinking.
Opportunity's poking at Marquette Island; Cassini's catching dancing moons
Since tomorrow's class is going to be on playing with raw images from the rovers and Cassini, I've been playing with recent raw images from the rovers and Cassini! I just thought I'd share a couple of the fun items I've been working with.
Be a Martian!
I think the new
Results of the first "Free Spirit" extrication drive, sol 2088: not much, as expected
Even though all of us rover fans know that Spirit is really, really stuck, I think I'm not the only one who was secretly hoping that today's images downlinked from Spirit would show that the rover had magically popped out of the ground overnight. Of course, she didn't.
Highlights from today's Spirit press briefing
Since A. J. S. Rayl was also listening in on today's press briefing about the efforts to extricate Spirit from her predicament at Troy, I'll just hit the high points and send you over to her story when she has posted it.
Planetary Radio Q and A: Are meteorites on Mars actually interesting?
The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been studying a lot of meteorites. That made me wonder, why study meteorites on Mars when we can study them in hand on Earth? How are Mars meteorites interesting?
She moves! "First drive sequence in 145 sols" for Spirit
It's been an awful long time since we've seen one of these from Spirit: an animation of four Navcam frames documenting motion!