Planetary Science
Stardust-NExT Spots Comet Tempel 1
The first image of comet Tempel 1 taken by NASA's Stardust spacecraft is a composite made from observations on Jan. 18 and 19, 2011. On Valentine's Day (Feb. 14 in U.S. time zones), Stardust will fly within about 200 kilometers (124 miles) of the comet's nucleus. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Photo: Close-up of Titan and Saturn's Rings
This image was taken on January 15, 2011 and received on Earth January 15, 2011. The camera was pointing toward Titan at approximately 839,213 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and CB3 filters. This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2012. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Full-Res: N00167026.jpg
Mars Sliding Behind Sun After Rover Anniversary
The team operating NASA's Mars rover Opportunity will temporarily suspend commanding for 16 days after the rover's seventh anniversary next week, but the rover will stay busy. For the fourth time since Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time (Jan. 24, Pacific Time), the planets' orbits will put Mars almost directly behind the sun from Earth's perspective.
Voyager Celebrates 25 Years Since Uranus Visit
As NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft made the only close approach to date of our mysterious seventh planet Uranus 25 years ago, Project Scientist Ed Stone and the Voyager team gathered at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to pore over the data coming in.
Photo: Express Close Flybys of the Martian Moon Phobos 2011
We received late yesterday the processed images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) science team and they are fabulous! The HRSC team have provided an excellent set of images and captions showing a 3D view of the moon and the proposed landing site of the Phobos-Grunt mission.
MRO HiRISE Mars Image: Bright Layers North of Meridiani Planum
This HiRISE image is located North of Meridiani Planum near the landing site of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The surface adjacent to the edge of the crater is characterized by light-toned, regularly layered sedimentary rock, dark-toned material trapped in degraded crater floors, and knobs. The layered rocks are faulted (offset) in places and folded (see inset of false color image, 1 kilometer/0.6 miles across). Written by: Sharon Wilson Original release: 5 January 2011. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. Images
