The Europlanet-AAS Division for Planetary Science meeting for Friday, Sep. 12 (see also Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu): https://www.epsc-dps2025.eu/ https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2025/meetingprogramme MITM10Laboratory experiments in support of ground observations and space missions (sample return, analogs, analytical workflow etc.) Low-temperature reflectance spectra of meteorites:… Read More »2025 Joint EPSC-DPS Meeting, V
We’ve gone a little while without ATLAS matters: Astrophysics > Earth and Planetary Astrophysics arxiv.org/abs/2508.15768[Submitted on 22 Aug 2025]Eubanks, T. M. Bills, B. G. Hibberd, A. et al. 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1): Direct Spacecraft Exploration of a Possible Relic of Planetary… Read More »3I + SPHEREx = Identified
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) will hold its biannual (Summer) meeting in Anchorage, Alaska this week. Even though this “general” meeting includes the sub-meetings of the Laboratory Astrophysics Division and Solar Physics Division, there’s still relevant content here for the… Read More »Summer AAS Meeting 2025 (Anchorage)
The launch of the SPHEREx spectrometry mission and PUNCH heliospheric mission, on a single rocket, was successful. All four PUNCHes and SPHEREx deployed from the second stage. SPHEREx, for one, has successfully communicated with the ground; the PUNCH team has… Read More »SPHEREx, PUNCH Up
…we continue with Day 3 (see also Days 1 and 2): Program (https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2025/technical_program/#20250310) Wednesday, March 12, 2025 Space Weathering https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2025/technical_program/?session_no=403Effect of Oxygen Ion Irradiation on the Visible, Infrared, and Raman Spectra of Phobos Candidate Materials: Implications on the Space Weathering… Read More »56th LPSC (2025): Wed, Day 3
Launch delay, again. The SPHEREx mission (plus the PUNCH cluster as secondary payloads) is on hold for the time being; issues with the Starship rocket apparently warrant an investigation across the SpaceX booster lineup.
The launch of SPHEREX has been pushed back to Tuesday night. For a quick rundown of (one of) the mission’s primary drivers, see this recent article in Science. Of course, the spacecraft and its spectrometer are useful for multiple investigations,… Read More »SPHEREx science, in Science
Yes, I know it was days ago and I’m falling behind. I said it was a big meeting, with lots of talks. TP9 Thu, 12 SepImpact Processes in the Solar System Chrysa Avdellidou; Co- Robert Luther, Elena Martellato, Isabel Herreros,… Read More »Europlanet. Sci. Congress 2024, Part Delta
Summer means a Summer meeting of the Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG, www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/). Now, my recap of Day 2. (see Day 1) – An update of DESTINY+, JAXA’s mission to rock comet (3200) Phaethon. Yes, a rock comet. Ground observations… Read More »SBAG, Summer 2024 day 2
I gave an update on the Vera Rubin Observatory. Undeniably, VRO is (will be…) a game changer. Also noteworthy but less newsworthy: the SPHEREx spacecraft is built: spherex.caltech.edu SPHEREx, for Spectro-PHotometric ices and Epoch of Reionization Explorer, is a NASA… Read More »First Light (Flight) in Sight…