Planetary Science

  1. 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.

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  2. 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.

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  3. Planetary Science

    More than a pinch

    Water believed to flow on the Red Planet would have been too salty to foster life, scientists suggest.

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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

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  8. 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.

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  9. Planetary Science

    Gassy Geysers: Cassini surveys Saturn’s moon

    NASA's Cassini spacecraft had a close encounter with the giant vapor plume gushing from Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Titan may harbor underground ocean

    Observations by the Cassini spacecraft hint that Saturn's smog-shrouded moon Titan may harbor a global ocean of water and ammonia 100 kilometers below its surface.

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  11. Planetary Science

    Dusty Clues: Study suggests no dearth of Earths

    A new study suggests that many, or perhaps most, sunlike stars have planets much like Earth.

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  12. Planetary Science

    A sunlike star’s early development

    A new infrared portrait of an embryonic sunlike star reveals an early, crucial step in the process of planet formation.

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