(From west to east)

• Juno is in the constellation of Orion.

• Vesta is in the constellation of Gemini.

• Metis is in the constellation of Leo.

• Herculina is in the constellation of Ophiuchus.

• Pallas is in the constellation of Aquarius.

• Information about the Minor Planets can be found at the Minor Planet Observer website.

"Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have found evidence that a new class of small moonlets resides within Saturn's rings. There may be as many as 10 million of these objects within one of Saturn's rings alone.

The moonlets' existence could help answer the question of whether Saturn's rings were formed through the break-up of a larger body or are the remnants of the disk of material from which Saturn and its moons formed.

"These moonlets are likely to be chunks of the ancient body whose break-up produced Saturn's glorious rings," said Joseph Burns of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., a co-author of the report."

Cassini Imaging Team

"In-flight checks of the New Horizons science payload are going well, as six of the seven instruments on board havec ompleted tests proving they survived launch and demonstrated their basic functionality.

Over the past month, spacecraft controllers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) flipped the "on" switches for Ralph, Alice, LORRI, SWAP, PEPSSI and the Student Dust Counter and confirmed that the instruments' thermal control systems work, their computer processors boot up and run the correct code, and they can receive commands and send telemetry (or status data) back to Earth. In addition, both the Alice and SWAP instruments have opened the aperture doors that protected them from contamination on Earth and during launch. The PEPSSI and Ralph aperture doors will be opened later this spring; LORRI's door will be opened in early fall. (The dust counter and radio science experiment, named REX, do not have such doors.)

The team will complete the set of initial instrument checkouts in mid-April when it conducts similar exercises with REX, which is incorporated into the electronics of the spacecraft's communications system."

"Samples from comet Wild 2 have surprised scientists, indicating the formation of at least some comets may have included materials ejected by the early sun to the far reaches of the solar system.

Scientists have found minerals formed near the sun or other stars in the samples returned to Earth by NASA's Stardust space craft in January. The findings suggest materials from the center of the solar system could have traveled to the outer reaches where comets formed. This may alter the way scientists view the formation and composition of comets.

"The interesting thing is we are finding these high-temperature minerals in materials from the coldest place in the solar system," said Donald Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator from the University of Washington, Seattle."

Stardust LPSC 2004 Abstracts
"Abstracts of the Stardust science results from the Comet Wild 2 encounter are now available here (Adobe Acrobat reader required): ftp://www.lpi.usra.edu/pub/outgoing/lpsc2004/full07.pdf"

"Shortly before Spirit's Martian anniversary, the Mars Orbiter Camera acquired an image centered on the rover's location at that time in the "Columbia Hills."

Mars Global Surveyor Images - March 23-29, 2006

"The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available:

• Tyrrhena Tongue (Released 23 March 2006)
  
• Upland Impact (Released 24 March 2006)
  
• South Polarscape (Released 25 March 2006)
  
• Arabia Bridal Veils (Released 26 March 2006)
  
• Raising Dust (Released 27 March 2006)
  
• Mars at Ls 25 Degrees (Released 28 March 2006)
  
• Terra Sirenum Gullies (Released 29 March 2006)
  
• All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived here.

Information about how to submit requests is online at the new Mars Orbiter Camera Target Request Site, at http://www.msss.com/plan/intro"

Newly-released MOC images can be seen in the MOCGallery, a website maintained by Malin Space Science Systems, the company that built and operates MOC for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA.

Mars Global Surveyor completed its eighth year orbiting the red planet. MGS reached Mars on 12 September 1997. The first MOC images were obtained on 15 September 1997.

"A new view of the biggest canyon in the solar system, merging hundreds of photos from NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, offers scientists and the public an online resource for exploring the entire canyon in detail.

This canyon system on Mars, named Valles Marineris, stretches as far as the distance from California to New York. Steep walls nearly as high as Mount Everest give way to numerous side canyons, possibly carved by water. In places, walls have shed massive landslides spilling far out onto the canyon floor.

A simulated fly-through using the newly assembled imagery is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/missions/odyssey/20060313.html.

The fly-through plus tools for wandering across and zooming into the large image are at http://themis.asu.edu."

Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images
Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) website: http://themis.asu.edu/

March 20 - 24, 2006

The following new images from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft are now available:

• Cloud Tops (Released 20 March 2006)
  
• Sabis Vallis (Released 21 March 2006)
  
• Channel Chaos (Released 22 March 2006)
  
• Summer Storm (Released 23 March 2006)
  
• More Clouds (Released 24 March 2006)
  
• All of the THEMIS images are archived here.

The Odyssey data are available through a new online access system established by the Planetary Data System at: http://starbrite.jpl.nasa.gov/pds/"

Spirit Status: Difficult progress with five-wheel drive - sol 790-797, Mar 31, 2006

"NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter resumed communication-relay support of the Mars Exploration Rovers on March 25, 2006. Spirit executed drives on sols 792 and 794 (March 26 and 27), but has been having trouble making progress given the current terrain and driving conditions. The team is developing new drive strategies for five-wheel driving in the test facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The new techniques for turning the rover to face waypoints are proving successful on Mars, but soft soil and inclines in Spirit's current location make uphill progress difficult to achieve. At the end of the week, the team decided to stop trying to advance along a route Spirit had been attempting in recent sols and, instead, to drive back down hill a few meters and then begin a different route toward a north-facing slope for surviving the Martian winter.

Right-front wheel status

Diagnostic tests run on the drive motor for Spirit's right-front wheel at various voltage levels resulted in no motion. These tests were consistent with results in the test facility, and they indicate an open connection in the motor. As a result, the team has precluded further use of this motor, so Spirit will continue driving with five wheels."

Opportunity Status: Continuing the Move Away from 'Erebus' - sol 762-770, Mar 27, 2006

"Opportunity is healthy and making progress away from "ErebusCrater." This week the rover drove nearly 180 meters (591 feet)"

Landing sites

"The first test images of Mars from NASA's newest spacecraft provide a tantalizing preview of what the orbiter will reveal when its main science mission begins next fall.

Three cameras on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were pointed at Mars at 8:36 p.m. PST Thursday, while the spacecraft collected 40 minutes of engineering test data. The cameras are the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, the Context Camera and the Mars Color Imager."