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Archive

Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.


  • Apr. 28, 2011 | 16:07 PDT | 23:07 UTC
    What's up in the solar system in May 2011
    Time again for my monthly look at what's going on with the robots exploring the solar system! The highlight of this month will, I think, be Dawn's first optical navigation images of its first target, Vesta. For this month Dawn will still be too... More»
  • Apr. 28, 2011 | 11:15 PDT | 18:15 UTC
    Watch Saturn's storms spin with VIMS
    A lot of attention has been paid recently to a storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere that is large and bright enough to be visible from Earth, but Saturn's atmosphere actually features lots more swirling storms. They can be hard to see, at least in... More»
  • Apr. 27, 2011 | 11:03 PDT | 18:03 UTC
    The Moon is a KREEPy place
    If you go to a conference about lunar geology, sooner or later you'll hear the term "KREEP" bandied about. (And almost as soon as KREEP is mentioned, a bad pun will be made. It's inevitable.) Context will tell you it has something to do with a... More»
  • Apr. 26, 2011 | 15:56 PDT | 22:56 UTC
    Place names on Lutetia
    Whenever we explore someplace new -- a new island, a new continent, a new cave, a new world -- there's a necessary activity that explorers must perform before they can sensibly tell the world about their discoveries: name things. Instead of... More»
  • Apr. 26, 2011 | 12:05 PDT | 19:05 UTC
    Shuttle Endeavour Final Launch set for April 29
    by Ken Kremer Space Shuttle Endeavour is just a few days from embarking on her 25th and final mission to space. Endeavour sits majestically atop Launch Pad 39 A at the Kennedy Space Center awaiting blastoff, slated for 3:47 p.m on Friday, April... More»
  • Apr. 25, 2011 | 10:22 PDT | 17:22 UTC
    India's launch site as seen by Japan's Daichi orbiter, now lost
    I wrote the following blog entry about an image from Japan's Daichi Earth-observing orbiter last week as one to keep in my back pocket for a day when I was too busy to write, not anticipating that there'd soon be a more pressing reason to write... More»
  • Apr. 22, 2011 | 12:30 PDT | 19:30 UTC
    Happy Earth Day!
    by Bill Nye This important day goes back 41 years. I celebrated the first one on the National Mall. I grew up in Washington, DC (within the city limits). I rode my bicycle down to the Earth Day event wearing a sign that read “Pedals... More»
  • Apr. 21, 2011 | 20:27 PDT | Apr. 22 03:27 UTC
    Pluto's atmosphere changes really fast!
    Pluto's atmosphere has been a subject of fascination for planetary astronomers since -- well, since astronomers first discovered that it had an atmosphere in the early '90s. The interest is partly because it's fascinating that such a distant and... More»
  • Apr. 20, 2011 | 15:03 PDT | 22:03 UTC
    Historical PDF: "The Voyager Flights to Jupiter and Saturn"
    A while ago I posted all 99 issues of the Voyager Mission Status Bulletins in PDF format, and now I have another cool item to add to that collection: NASA EP-191, "The Voyager Flights to Jupiter and Saturn." This was a 60-page booklet on nice,... More»
  • Apr. 20, 2011 | 08:09 PDT | 15:09 UTC
    Outside scientists being invited in to Cassini mission
    NASA announced last week the start of a Participating Scientist program for Cassini, which is big news, for outer planets scientists anyway. Lots and lots of other missions have participating scientist programs, from big missions like Mars Science... More»