Planetary Science

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured images of the large asteroid Vesta that will help refine plans for the Dawn spacecraft's rendezvous with Vesta in July 2011. Scientists have constructed a video from the images that will help improve pointing instructions for Dawn as it is placed in a polar orbit around Vesta. Analyses of Hubble images revealed a pole orientation, or tilt, of approximately four degrees more to the asteroid's east than scientists previously thought.

This Image was taken on September 24, 2010 and received on Earth September 26, 2010. The camera was pointing toward Titan at approximately 42,314 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CB3 and CL2 filters. This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2011. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Full-Res: W00065689.jpg

This is an image of the meteorite that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity found and examined in September 2010. Opportunity's cameras first revealed the meteorite in images taken on Sol 2363 (Sept. 16, 2010), the 2,363rd Martian day of the rover's mission on Mars. This view was taken with the panoramic camera on Sol 2371 (Sept. 24, 2010).

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite has completed assembly at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and is nearly ready for a December delivery to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., where it will be joined to the Curiosity rover. SAM and Curiosity are set to fly on the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover mission scheduled for launch in the fall of 2011.

There are few places on Mars lower than this. On the left of this image, the floor of Melas Chasma sinks nine kilometers below the surrounding plains. New images from ESA's Mars Express highlight the complex history of this enormous Martian canyon.

Scientists using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have learned that distinctive, colorful bands and splotches embellish the surfaces of Saturn's inner, mid-size moons. The reddish and bluish hues on the icy surfaces of Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea appear to be the aftermath of bombardments large and small.