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The Planetary Report • July/August 2006
A Mystery Solved
On the Cover: This color composite of multi-spectral Landsat images reveals a huge, previously undetected crater in Egypt’s western desert, near the border with Libya. The outer rim of the double-ringed crater is 31 kilometers (about 19 miles) in diameter, making it the largest crater-shaped feature in the Great Sahara of North Africa.
Features
6 Don't Abandon Science at NASA: Charles Kennel stresses that we need to commit to a strong sicnece rpogram at NASA to better know our planet and its place in the cosmos.
10 Veiled Crater in the Eastern Sahara: Farouk El-Baz and Eman Ghoneim tell their tale of discovering a massive impact crater in the Sahara.
16 Interstellar Dust: The Hunt for the Building Blocks of the Universe: Amir Alexander sheds some light on these elusive particles.
Departments
3 Members' Dialogue Metric vs. standard
4 We Make it Happen! Expedition to Europa on Earth; Shoemaker NEO grants
8 World Watch Save Our Science (S.O.S.) campaign update
20 Q&A How do we measure things on other planets? Does cold weather affect telescopes?
22 Society News Planetariums and Planetary Radio
The Planetary Report • July/August 2006
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