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Euclides D Reinstated for Lunar Crater Formerly Named Eppinger

Monday, July 13, 2009

The name Euclides D has been officially reinstated for the lunar crater formerly named Eppinger. The 6 km crater is located at 9.4S, 25.7W, on lunar map LAC 76. For more information, see the list of satellite features (lettered craters) in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.

Posted by Jennifer Blue in Planetary Nomenclature at 08:22

Sixteen Names Approved for Craters on Mercury

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The following names have been approved for craters on Mercury: Abedin, Benoit, Berkel, Calvino, de Graft, Derain, Eastman, Gibran, Hemingway, Hodgkins, Izquierdo, Kunisada, Lange, Matabei, Munkácsy, and To Ngoc Van. For more information, see the list of Mercury crater names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.

Posted by Jennifer Blue in Planetary Nomenclature at 11:07

Spirit Photographs Her Underbelly, SOL 1925

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS/ARC

This panorama of images from the Spirit rover, taken on Sol 1925 (June 2, 2009), is helping engineers assess the rover's current state and plan her extraction from the soft soil in the region now called "Troy." The images were taken by Spirit's Microscopic Imager (MI) instrument, mounted on the end of her robotic arm. The MI science investigation is led by Ken Herkenhoff of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff.

This is the first time the MI has been used to assist in planning a rover's escape from an embedding event. The MI isn't intended to take these types of images--it is designed to focus on targets only 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) in front of its optics. As a result, the images in this mosaic are well out of focus. Yet despite the focus and the backlighting of the scene, Joel Hagen (Modesto Jr. College) and colleagues at NASA's Ames Research Center in California were able process the images to bring out the details shown here. The mosaic shows the underside of the rover, the depth to which the wheels are embedded and the terrain itself in sufficient detail to assess the rover's state.

Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS/ARC

More information on the rovers | Official Press Release

Posted by Ryan Raub in MER at 16:43

New Name Approved for a Mons on Mars

Monday, July 6, 2009

The name Syria Mons has been approved for the Martian mons located at 13.9S, 104.3W. For more information, see the list of Martian mons names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.

Posted by Jennifer Blue in Planetary Nomenclature at 08:27

Four New Names for Martian Surface Features

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Three new crater names (Canillo, Doba, and Ehden) and one new planum name (Nepenthes Planum) have been approved for use on Mars. For more information, see the map of MC-14 and the list of Martian feature names in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.

Posted by Jennifer Blue in Planetary Nomenclature at 09:48

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