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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
New maps of Pluto show pretty amazing amounts of surface change
I just posted my writeup of today's press briefing on a new map of Pluto produced from Hubble images. The main conclusion was that Pluto has shown an astonishing amount of changes across its surface between 1994 and 2002 -- more, in fact, than any other solid surface in the solar system.
Spectacular Hubble view of the aftermath of an asteroid collision
Hubble has caught an astonishing view of something that's never before been observed, the aftermath of a collision between two asteroids in the main belt.
WISE bags its first near-Earth object, 2010 AB78
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) just took its lens cap off on December 29, and posted its
Congratulations to the WISE team on a beautiful "First Light" photo!
Congratulations are due to the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) team on their lovely
Kepler discovers its first five exoplanets
Congratulations to NASA's Kepler mission team on their announcement of the discovery of its first five exoplanets (planets around other stars).
Two cool discoveries today: icy-hot exoplanet and smallest ever Kuiper Belt object
There are two cool stories circulating today on the theme of discovering new places in the cosmos.
Congratulations to the WISE team on a successful launch!
It was worth my while to get up at 5:15 my time this morning -- I saw a flawless launch of a Delta II from Vandenberg Air Force Base, carrying the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) into orbit.
Einstein still rules
News from 7.2 billion light years away demonstrates that some things in this shifting universe are relatively reliable.
Cassini RADAR continues to gaze at Titan
The Cassini spacecraft made its 59th flyby of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, on Friday, July 24, and in the last few hours we have received images from the RADAR instrument in SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) mode.
Gravity's Bow
Timothy Reed explains how optical telescopes are tested for gravity sag, and the methods used to counteract or compensate for it.
Aloha, Io
Taking a look at Jupiter's moon, Io, from Hawaii.
Farewell to Hubble, Obama Calls, Astronauts Testify to Congress as Shuttle is Set to Land
Farewell to Hubble, Obama Calls, Astronauts Testify to Congress as Shuttle is Set to Land
An Auspicious Week for Astronomy
On Monday, if all goes well, we will launch the Space Shuttle to rejuvenate one the greatest scientific missions launched on or off the Earth: the Hubble Space Telescope.
A pretty new Hubble image of Mars
A set of Mars image data taken by the Hubble Space Telescope a year ago was just released to Hubble's data archive. It was captured by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on January 30, 2008 when Mars was about 115 million kilometers from Earth.
Too much outer planets news for me to read (much less report on)
Before I get to my notes from OPAG I want to minimally acknowledge today's news, which I'll have to get to in more detail later.
Views of Tempel 1
It looks like the European Space Agency was busy overnight -- lots of great Earth- and space- based images of the impact have been appearing on various websites.