The Rosetta spacecraft has successfully moved into orbit around 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. We’ve been getting images of the comet as Rosetta approached, but now that it’s in orbit we are getting high resolution images such as the one above. You’ll notice the comet really looks like an asteroid, with what seems to be a rocky/dusty surface. That’s because comets and asteroids aren’t as different as often portrayed.
Mars Transit
About a year ago Curiosity happened to be in the path of an eclipse. So Curiosity was directed to take a series of photographs of the Sun. You can see the result here. The shadow moving across the Sun is Phobos, and you can see it pass in real time. Phobos is must smaller than our Moon, only about 27 …
Mars Mission
On October 19 of this year the comet C/2013 A1 (more commonly known as Siding Spring) will make a very close approach to Mars. At its closest point, the comet could be only 120,000 km from the surface of Mars. There’s no chance it will hit the planet, but such a near miss could have an effect on both the planet and the probes orbiting it.
Greatest Show on Earth
The diameter of the Sun is about 400 times larger than the diameter of the Moon. The Moon is about 389 times closer to the Earth than the Sun. This means that the size of the Sun and Moon in the sky are about the same, and that happy coincidence is what allows us to have the greatest show on Earth: the solar eclipse.
Snow White, Rose Red
Beyond Neptune, and just slightly closer to the Sun than Eris, is a solar system body designated as 2007 OR10. With a diameter of about 1200 km, it is the largest solar system body without an official name, but it has been given the nickname Snow White. Snow White is one of the reddest objects in the solar system, likely due to methane …
The Planet That Never Was
While there were speculations about a planet closer than Mercury going back to at least the 1600s, it wasn’t until the 1850s that Urbain Le Verrier discovered the first indirect evidence for such a planet. Le Verrier carefully calculated the orbit of Mercury, and determined that the orientation of its orbit rotated slowly over time. This is known as a perihelion advance, and it is due to the small gravitational pulls from other planets.
Newer Horizons
The New Horizons spacecraft is on its way to Pluto. It will fly-by the dwarf planet in July 2015. The spacecraft will have far too much speed to stay near Pluto, so after its visit the craft will continue its journey away from the Sun. Given that Pluto marks the inner edge of the Kuiper belt, it would be nice if New Horizons could explore other Kuiper belt objects.
Ripples
The rings of Saturn are among the more beautiful objects in our solar system. With their subtle variations they seem fragile, as if the slightest disruption would cause them to fall apart like a house of cards. In fact the rings are quite old, dating back about four billion years or more. They have evolved over time, and were likely much more extensive in the past, but they are hardly fragile.
Titan Fall
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, and the second largest moon in our solar system. It has a greater diameter than Mercury. It is also the only moon with a thick atmosphere. It has liquid methane rivers and lakes, and has a seasonal climate.
And like our moon, we have landed a probe on its surface. In 2005 the Huygens probe made a one-way journey to the surface of Titan. You can see a video of that landing above.