Mysterious Lunar Swirls

© ESA

Like eddies of cream in a cup of coffee, unusual light-coloured swirls on the moon's surface are still unexplained and will be seen in much better detail by the upcoming Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2008.

Nix and Hydra

© NASA/ESA/G. Bacon (Space Telescope Science Institute)

The two new small moons of Pluto, discovered last year, have now been named Nix and Hydra. They join Pluto's third known and larger moon, Charon.

The Snows of Udzha

© NASA/JPL/ASU

Another beautiful image from the Mars Odyssey orbiter, of water ice deposits near the edge of the Martian northern polar cap.

ESA Unveils 'Bridget' Mars Rover

© ESA

New highly advanced rover, to be launched in 2011 by the European Space Agency as part of the ExoMars mission, will look for evidence of past or present life.

Blog Update

I'm reformatting the blog again to cover planetary exploration and science in general, as it was initially. Mars related news will still be a main feature of course, in keeping with the name, but significant new findings are being made by planetary probes and astronomers on a regular basis now, both in our solar system and other extra-solar systems (now over 150 found so far and counting). From the growing evidence for abundant past liquid water on Mars, to the cold methane rains, rivers and 300-foot tall icy sand dunes on Titan, to the huge Yellowstone-like water vapour geysers on Enceladus, to the weird mile-high ridge around the equator of Iapetus, and much more, we are living in a time of great discoveries...