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24 October 2008
New President of the Planetary Society!
I just found out that the Planetary Society has selected a new president: none other than my adviser, Jim Bell! I was wondering where he was earlier this week… I guess I’ll have to start addressing him as Mr. President. 🙂
23 October 2008
The Science of Chandrayaan
By now you’ve probably heard that India successfully launched its first moon mission yesterday (Oct. 22, 2008). But what will it do at the moon? Let’s take a look at the scientific payload and find out! This will be a 2-part post, starting with the five instruments made by the Indian space agency (ISRO), followed by six more made by countries around the world. Most of my information comes from …
21 October 2008
Fresh Craters
Today marks my twenty-fourth revolution around the sun! To commemorate this momentous occasion, I am going to be a lazy blogger and just let you drool over some HiRISE images instead. The image above is a small crater in the polar layered deposits. It’s filled with ice because the crater walls keep the floor shaded, so frost can collect there. You can read more about this crater at the HiRISE …
18 October 2008
Carnival of Space #75
Happy Saturday! The 75th carnival of space is up, over at the Lounge of the Lab Lemming! You should check it out. Now. Go!
16 October 2008
Saturn V Launch in Slow-Motion
It may not be too long before we see launches like this again… I can’t wait! via videosift.com
DPS 2008 Day Five: Icy and Not-so-Icy Moons
Today was the final day of the DPS meeting here at Cornell, but the sessions were still very interesting. They served to remind me just how little we know about the outer solar system. Also, remember you can go and watch all the sessions yourself! I believe the plan is to transfer all the videos to a more permanent location soon, so I will keep you posted. The first few …
15 October 2008
DPS Posting Intermission
I wasn’t able to make it to many sessions today. I was helping to organize a “Women in Science” event at the local middle school, taking advantage of the fact that so many famous female scientists are in town. So unfortuantely that meant that I only caught a few talks today. Fortunately, the sessions are still available online, so I will be able to get caught up on what I …
14 October 2008
DPS 2008 Day Three: More Titan, More Exoplanets
This morning I spent my time in the Titan Subsurface and Interior sessions, and I’m glad I did because there were some cool talks. There were a couple that showed possible evidence for cryovolcanism (that is, “volcanoes” where the “lava” is actually water freezing to become ice). One talk by Rosaly Lopes showed radar images of locations called Hotei Arcus and Western Xanadu, and suggested that the lobate features that …
12 October 2008
DPS 2008 Day 2: Rings, Titan, Comets, Orbits
Today I didn’t go to most of the first round of presentations. They were about Titan’s upper atmosphere, asteroids, and the theory and dynamics of rings. Not really the stuff that gets me excited. I did catch the last talk in the rings session. It was showcasing a new program used to simulate ring particles, including the ability to make the particles stick together if they collide slowly. Apperntly some …
11 October 2008
DPS 2008 Day One: Mars, Exoplanets, Defining Planets and Enceladus
Today was the first day of the Division for Planetary Sciences conference here at Cornell. All the talks are being live web-streamed, but since most of you probably don’t have time to sit and watch esoteric scientific talks online all weekend, here are the highlights from the sessions I saw today. In the morning, the first session that I went to was Mars Surface and Surface/Atmosphere Interactions. DPS is an …
