Planetary Science
- Planetary Science
Shake, shake, shake
Instrument succeeds in capturing first soil sample, allowing Mars Phoenix Lander team to begin scientific studies.
- Planetary Science
Colliding moonlets
New photos of collisions in one of Saturn’s rings provide a local lab for understanding the interactions that might shape young solar system formation.
- Planetary Science
Small exoplanet discovered
Astronomers have discovered the smallest planet known that is beyond the solar system and orbits an ordinary parent body.
- Space
Making an impression
In its seventh day after successfully landing on the Red Planet, the Phoenix Lander digs its first trench and is ready to start its ice-hunting.
- Planetary Science
Dispatch from Mars, Sol 4
The good news is a tentative sighting of ice by the Mars Phoenix Lander. The bad news is the discovery of a glitch in the system that will analyze soil samples.
- Planetary Science
Rarin’ to go
After a day’s delay, the robotic arm on the Mars Phoenix Lander is free of its shackles and is preparing to dig for ice.
- Planetary Science
More than a pinch
Water believed to flow on the Red Planet would have been too salty to foster life, scientists suggest.
- Planetary Science
See how it lands
A camera on a Mars-orbiting spacecraft caught an image of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute just before it descended onto the Red Planet’s northern plains on May 25.
- Planetary Science
Touchdown! Phoenix lands on Mars
The first close-up color images of the northern arctic circle on the Red Planet were recorded by the Mars Phoenix Lander spacecraft only a few hours after its flawless descent at 7:38 p.m. EDT, May 25. The detailed images suggest ice lies beneath the hard soil.
- Planetary Science
Hop, skip and a jump
Less gravity on Mars means wind-driven grains of sand travel up to 10 times faster than those blowing along Earth’s surface, new analyses suggest.
- Planetary Science
BOOK LIST | Titan Unveiled
Astronomer Lorenz and science writer Mitton provide the details of what we know so far about Saturn’s moon. TITAN UNVEILED Princeton University Press, 2008, 243 p., $29.95
- Planetary Science
Caught in the Act? Images may reveal planetary birth
Astronomers, for the first time, have imaged dusty clumps surrounding young stars that could be planets in the making.
