Press Conference on Mecury

NASA is planning a press conference on April 30th to reveal discoveries made by the MESSENGER probe. Flybys occurred on January 14, 2008 and October 6, 2008.

Scientists Find Water in Moon Glass

Volcanic glass brought back from the Moon during Apollo has revelled a hidden secret. Using techniques that were not available during Apollo, scientists have found water inside the tiny pebbles of glass. It was longed believed the Moon was a completely dry desert, so this is an amazing discovery.

Mars has the Largest Impact Crater in the Solar System

Apparently the entire northern basis of Mars (about 40% of Mars' surface) is a single impact crater. I wonder what effect a massive blast like that had on Mars' evolution?

Geologist and IAU Disagree on What is a Planet

Apparently, geologists have their own (better, in my opinion) definition of a planet.

They define a "planet" as a natural object in space that is massive enough for gravity to make it approximately spherical, but not so massive that it has generated energy by internal nuclear fusion.

One problem they have with the IAU's definition of planets, dwarf planets, and plutoids, is that if Earth was beyond Neptune, it would not be a planet, since it is two small to sweep out the Kepler objects around it.

I would also ask, if we found a planet the size of Mars floating by itself in space, would it be a planet?

Definitions based on solar system geography and a bias towards eight planets, along with condescending comments made by IAU officials do not a planet make.

Phoenix has Offically Found Water Ice Below the Surface of Mars

NASA's newest Mars lander, Phoenix, has found conclusive evidence of water-ice below the surface of Mars. This is the first direct evidence of water on Mars.

Three New Super Earths Found

Science have found three new "super Earths." The new planets have been discovered HARPS instrument on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope at La Silla, Chile. The star HD 40307, contains all three. The smallest of the trio weighs in at 4.2 Earth masses and orbits HD 40307 every 4.3 Earth days, while the largest, with a mass 9.4 times that of Earth, has a 20.4-day orbit. The middleweight is 6.7 Earth masses and has a 9.6-day trek around the star.

Phoenix Finds Ice

The Phoenix Mars lander has scrapped the soil it landed on and found a young layer of ice (less than 100,000 years).

JPL Gets Mars Funding

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies gave NASA and specifically JPL $75 million more than the President requested for 2009. The programs that got help are:

• $78.1 million for exoplanet research for the proposed 2010 Space Interferometry Mission
• Continue funding Rovers Spirit and Opportunity for 4 1/2 more years
• $101.1 million would go to NASA's Outer Planets Program

IAU Continues Stupidity on Pluto

In an effort to try to make everyone happy (and therefore make no one happy), the IAU has decided to call all spherical objects beyond Pluto "plutiods". This of course has no physical meaning and could not be easily expanded to other solar systems. And spherical objects inside of Neptune, such as Ceres, are still called "dwarf planets."

Would somebody please create a planet definition that makes sense? Geography of the solar system doesn't cut it for me. And the current definition doesn't include Jupiter as far as I can tell.

The official definition of a plutoid is

A body that has sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared [their orbits of debris]. [Outside of Neptune that is -dsj]

The definition of a planet is:

• is in orbit around the Sun,
• has sufficient mass so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape,
• has "cleared the neighbourhood" around its orbit.

I am not sure what "cleared the neighbourhood" means, but Jupiter has two large bodies of asteroids in its orbits. So is it a planet?

I don't mind having 13 or 14 planets, but I do mind these asinine definitions the IAU seems to be constructing.

Be scientists please.

NASA is Looking for Lunar Science Proposals

NASA is requesting projects for the NASA Lunar Science Institute to perform on the Moon. NASA expects to make $8 million to $10 million available for the research, and anticipates making five to seven awards, including one focused on exploration objectives.

Highest Resolution View Ever From Mars Comes From NASA Lander

TUCSON, Ariz. -- A microscope on NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander has taken images of dust and sand particles with the greatest resolution ever returned from another planet.

The mission's Optical Microscope observed particles that had fallen onto an exposed surface, revealing grains as small as one-tenth the diameter of a human hair.

"We have images showing the diversity of mineralogy on Mars at a scale that is unprecedented in planetary exploration," said Michael Hecht of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. He is the lead scientist for Phoenix's Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) instrument suite.

Meanwhile, Phoenix received commands Thursday to collect its first soil sample to be delivered to a laboratory instrument on the lander deck. Commands for that same activity sent on Wednesday did not reach Phoenix because the orbiter intended for relaying the transmission, NASA's Mars Odyssey, had put itself into a safe standby mode shortly before the commands would have reached Odyssey.

On Wednesday, the lander completed a back-up plan of activities that had been sent previously, reported JPL's Chris Lewicki, mission manager for Phoenix surface operations on the lander's 11th Martian day. That plan included weather monitoring and additional imaging for a high-resolution color panorama of the site.

The Optical Microscope images were taken June 3 of particles that had collected on a sticky surface exposed during the Phoenix landing and for five days after landing. "It's a first quick look," Hecht said. "This experiment was partly an insurance policy for something to observe with the microscope before getting a soil sample delivered by the arm, and partly a characterization of the Optical Microscope. All the tools are working well."

Some of the particles might have come from inside the spacecraft during the forceful events of landing, but many match expectations for Martian particles. "We will be using future observations of soil samples delivered by the Robotic Arm to confirm whether the types of particles in this dustfall sample are also seen in samples we can be certain are Martian in origin," Hecht said.

The particles show a range of shapes and colors.

"You can see the amount of variety there is in what appears otherwise to be just reddish brown soil," said Tom Pike, Phoenix science team member from Imperial College London. He noted that one translucent particle resembles a grain of salt, but that it is too early to say for sure.

Thursday's commands were relayed to Phoenix via NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The relay radio on that orbiter has been working well in recent days, after intermittently turning itself off last week. Phoenix will continue to do relays via Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter until Odyssey returns to full functioning, and then Phoenix will use both orbiters.

"We are currently bringing the Odyssey spacecraft back into nominal operations, and we will resume relay service with Odyssey in the next day or two," said JPL's Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for the JPL Mars Exploration Program.

"We think Odyssey went into safe mode because of a single event that affected computer memory," Edwards said. "Yesterday's safe mode event appears to be very similar to events that have caused Odyssey to go into safe mode two or three times earlier during its long operation around Mars." Odyssey has been orbiting Mars since 2001.

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.

Phoenix Arm is Up

The Mars lander Phoenix has completely released its arm and taken a panoramic picture of its surroundings.

It may also be on a layer of ice.

Three New Extrasolar Planets in May

Three new extrasolar planets were confirmed in May. CoRoT-Exo-3b is a monster, coming in at 20.2 Jupiter Masses. CoRoT-Exo-5b is a relative baby at 0.86 Jupiter Masses and finally XO-5b is middle of the road at 1.15 Jupiter Masses. All are likely Gas Giants, but it continues to appear the universe abounds with planets.

SpaceDev Lands on Mars with Phoenix

Apparently, SpaceDev had more than 30 devices on the Phoenix lander that touched down on Mars last Sunday. Way to go guys!

First Mars Images from Phoenix

The first images from the Phoenix Mars lander are here.

[update] The lander is ready to move it robotic arm out.

Phoenix Lands on Mars

The Mars probe Phoenix has successfully landed on the red planet's north pole and has sent back pictures.

NASA Phoenix Lander to Touch Down Tomorrow

NASA's Phoenix lander will touch down on Mars tomorrow, May 25, after "seven minutes of terror."

Cassini Extended by Two Years

NASA has extended the Cassini mission around Saturn by two years. The mission originally ended this July, but since it is in such a good health, NASA is continuing funding for the mission. This should allow for continued study of Saturn's moons.

Scientists Planning Outer Planet Probes

Scientists are bringing concepts to NASA for exploration of the outer planets.

LADEE to Examine Lunar Dust

LADEE , a small probe set to ride piggyback on the lunar gravity-mapping probe in 2011, will spend 100 days examining lunar dust.