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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
The far side of Phobos
Now here is an unusual image of Phobos, Mars' moon.
Titan: Callisto with weather
It's the second time I've posted with this provocative title. This time, it's in response to a new paper published last week in Science.
Soviet landers Luna 20, 23, and 24, plus the tracks of Lunokhod 2
Today is the bonanza day for Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: the first formal release of orbiter data happened this morning, including 10 Terabytes (that is 10 million Megabytes!) of camera data.
Phobos from Mars Express
ESA has released the first image from Mars Express' recent close flybys of Phobos!
LPSC: Wrapping up Tuesday: The Moon, Mars, Mercury, Vesta, and back to Mars
Well, it's already mid-day on the Friday a week after the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference ended and I'm STILL not done writing up my notes.
Pretty pictures: Europa from Galileo and Voyager
For some reason both Jason Perry and Ted Stryk took it upon themselves to produce new, pretty versions of Jupiter's moon Europa this week, so I'm hereby featuring them!
Helene has two faces
Yes, it's yet another post on Helene! I keep on finding new stuff to post. This time it is a really cool montage assembled by Ian Regan.
LPSC: Venus
Despite the fact that I began my career in science doing research on Magellan images of Venus, I've often avoided Venus sessions at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference because they've tended to be pointlessly contentious. But I decided to attend the one this year to see how things went.
Pointing at Helene
I posted already some neat images from Cassini's flyby of Helene last week, and commented on how most of the images from that encounter missed Helene entirely or only caught the moon at one edge of the camera field of view. Here's an example of one of those images.
Joint replacement operation takes Goldstone 70-meter dish offline until at least November
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced yesterday that the venerable 70-meter dish at the Goldstone Deep Space Network station is being taken offline so that major surgery can be performed.
Phobos has gravity!
Last week Mars Express had its closest-ever flyby of Mars' larger, inner moon Phobos.
Unbelievably spectacular flight through Candor Chasma
This is one of the things that came out during LPSC last week and all I could do at the time was Tweet it—so here it is in blog form: the most unbelievably spectacular 3D animation of a bit of Mars I've seen yet, produced by Adrian Lark.
LPSC: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter results
A week later and I am finally getting to the mountains of notes I took on Moon-related talks I saw at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) held in Houston last week.
WISE's weekly featured image
I'm pleased to point out that the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission (WISE) has started an
Cassini's Helene flyby
I was much anticipating Cassini's encounter with Helene on Wednesday.
Pretty picture: Io, labeled
Jason Perry just posted this lovely labeled image of Io over at his blog, the Gish Bar Times.
LPSC, Day 3: Opportunity, and what the heck is Marquette?
I wrote earlier about some results from Spirit reported at this year's Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas; here are the rest of my notes on rover-related talks, from Opportunity's site on the opposite side of Mars.
Back from LPSC
Just a quick note to all that I've collected both children from the family I left them with and we've all now arrived home from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Pretty Picture: ISS in the X-band
This is from the
Gorilla seen in Nasa Snap from Mars? Umm....no.
Yes, I'm totally not kidding, that is the headline in the Sun: