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The Planetary Society Blog
Archive
Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.
Dec. 6, 2009 | 19:00 PST | Dec. 7 03:00 UTC
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 6: Umbriel
Umbriel is the darkest moon in a pretty dark place in the solar system, the Uranus system. Pretty much everything we know about its surface is based on about 10 images captured by Voyager, which show only its southern hemisphere because it was... More»
Dec. 5, 2009 | 08:17 PST | 16:17 UTC
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 5: Epimetheus
Epimetheus is one of the many small moons of Saturn that are referred to by the Cassini mission team as "rocks" though they are probably mostly made of ice, not rock. I think that the name "rock" comes from their lumpy shape, like a rock you might... More»
Dec. 4, 2009 | 13:41 PST | 21:41 UTC
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 4: Mercury
Mercury is the smallest of the eight planets and, like Uranus and Neptune, has so far been studied only during flyby encounters. That will change in March of 2011, when MESSENGER will finally complete its more than six-year journey and enter orbit... More»
Dec. 3, 2009 | 15:20 PST | 23:20 UTC
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 3: Europa
From a distance, Jupiter's fourth largest moon Europa is the smoothest object in the solar system; its outline traces out a perfect circle. (Actually, before any pedants email me, I should amend that to say it's slightly elliptical, due to... More»
Dec. 3, 2009 | 12:23 PST | 20:23 UTC
If Earth had rings
I am the very last space blogger in the universe to post about this video, but that doesn't make it any less cool. It's a neat "what if" presentation about what our skies would look like if Earth had rings like Saturn. There's various reasons why... More»
Dec. 2, 2009 | 15:42 PST | 23:42 UTC
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 2: Mathilde
253 Mathilde is the largest asteroid that has ever been visited by a spacecraft (as is obvious when you look at this montage of all asteroids visited by spacecraft, a version of which you can buy from our new store at Cafe Press). It's held that... More»
Dec. 2, 2009 | 12:34 PST | 20:34 UTC
The November/December issue of The Planetary Report is out
Members of The Planetary Society, you should now be receiving your November/December issue of The Planetary Report in the mail. This one includes a feature on the new LightSail project as well as my annual "Year in Pictures" article. You can also... More»
Dec. 1, 2009 | 15:08 PST | 23:08 UTC
Planetary Society Advent Calendar for December 1: Dione
I've always loved advent calendars and the way they both managed and heightened my anticipation of the gift-opening frenzy of Christmas morning. I can't wait to open the first window in this year's LEGO advent calendar with my three-year-old this... More»
Dec. 1, 2009 | 09:22 PST | 17:22 UTC
Dawn Journal: In the asteroid belt, but far from asteroids
Here's our monthly checkup with the Dawn mission, contributed by Marc Rayman, the mission's Project System Engineer. Thanks Marc! --ESLClick to enlarge >Marc RaymanBy Marc Rayman
Dear Dawnticlimaxes,
Dawn continues to make steady progress through... More»
Nov. 30, 2009 | 12:32 PST | 20:32 UTC
What's up in the solar system in December 2009
The two big things happening this month are the launch of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), from Vandenberg Air Force Base no earlier than December 9 at 06:09 PST (15:09 UTC), and the December meeting of the American Geophysical Union... More»
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