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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Galileo got so many more images of Ida than I realized
While writing up the cruise-phase issues of the Galileo Messenger a couple of weeks ago, I came across a fuzzy montage of images of Ida that I had not seen before. So I decided to spend some time digging into the Planetary Data System to see if there were more images to be found. I found lots and lots pictures that I'd never seen before!
Galileo Messengers: Cruise to Venus, Earth, Gaspra, Earth, Ida, and almost to Jupiter
It's taken me a year to face the emotionally draining task of reading and writing about Galileo's cruise phase as chronicled in the mission's newsletters.
My ever-popular asteroids-and-comets montage, now in color, with bonus Toutatis
My collage of all the asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft is probably the single most popular image I have ever posted on this blog. I've now updated it to be in color and to include Toutatis.
So far, no moons found at Ceres or Vesta
Since the Galileo mission discovered tiny Dactyl circling Ida in 1993, quite a lot of asteroid systems have been found to be binary; there are even a few triples. So it's quite reasonable to guess that two of the biggest asteroids, Ceres and Vesta, might also have satellites.
Door 15 in the 2010 advent calendar
Time to open the fifteenth door in the advent calendar. Where in the solar system is this cratered world?
Asteroids and comets to scale, including Hartley 2
Just in time for today's Deep Impact press briefing, which you can watch on NASA TV in a few minutes: I've updated my montage of all the asteroids and comets that have been visited and photographed to include Hartley 2.
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 13: Dactyl
If you don't think Pluto gets enough respect, just imagine what it's like to be a satellite of an asteroid.