(From west to east)

• Juno is in the constellation of Cetus.
• Melpomene is in the constellation of Cetus.
• Fortuna is at opposition on the 9th in the constellation of Taurus.
• Vesta is in the constellation of Leo.
• Pallas is in the constellation of Virgo.

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

"This unprocessed image was captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during its Nov. 21, 2009 flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus. It shows the moon's south polar region, where jets of water vapor and other particles spew from fissures on the surface.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo."

Cassini Imaging Team

"Call it a burst of activity between naps: the New Horizons team woke its Pluto-bound spacecraft from hibernation this week for some onboard housekeeping.

On pre-programmed commands from controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. — transmitted to the spacecraft in August through NASA's Deep Space Network of antenna stations — New Horizons came out of hibernation on Nov. 9. The spacecraft had been "sleeping" since Aug. 27, when it completed its third annual instrument and system checkout."

New Horizons gallery

"ASTEROID BELT -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft re-entered our solar system's asteroid belt today, Nov. 13, and this time it will stay there.

Dawn first entered the belt (whose lower boundary may be defined as the greatest distance Mars gets from the sun (249,230,000 kilometers, or 154,864,000 miles) in June 2008. It remained within the belt for 40 days before its carefully planned orbital path brought it below the asteroid belt's lower boundary.

This time around, Dawn's flight path will remain above this hypothetical lower boundary for the rest of the mission and for the foreseeable future - Dawn will become the first human-made object to take up permanent residence in the asteroid belt."

"The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft completed its fifth and final deep-space maneuver of the mission today, providing the expected velocity change needed to place the spacecraft on course to enter into orbit about Mercury in March 2011. A 3.3-minute firing of its bi-propellant engine provided nearly all of the probeÕs 177 meter per second (396 mile per hour) increase in its speed relative to the Sun."

"PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's long-lived Mars Odyssey spacecraft has completed an eight-month adjustment of its orbit, positioning itself to look down at the day side of the planet in mid-afternoon instead of late afternoon.

This change gains sensitivity for infrared mapping of Martian minerals by the orbiter's Thermal Emission Imaging System camera. Orbit design for Odyssey's first seven years of observing Mars used a compromise between what worked best for the infrared mapping and for another onboard instrument.

"The orbiter is now overhead at about 3:45 in the afternoon instead of 5 p.m., so the ground is warmer and there is more thermal energy for the camera's infrared sensors to detect," said Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project scientist for Mars Odyssey."

"A simulated fly-through using the newly assembled imagery is available online.

The fly-through plus tools for wandering across and zooming into the large image are at THEMIS."

Daily Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images
Can be found at the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) website.

The Odyssey data are available through a new online access system established by the Planetary Data System.

SPIRIT UPDATE: Extrication Attempt Continues - sols 2091-2095, Nov. 20-24, 2009:

"The Spirit team is continuing with the process of attempting to extract her from her embedded location at Troy on the west side of Home Plate.

On Sol 2092 (Nov. 21, 2009), a two-step 5-meter (16 feet) forward motion was commanded. After the rover completed about 4 meters (13 feet) of wheel spin, a stall occurred in the right-rear wheel. Telemetry suggested that the wheel was bogging down.

On Sol 2095 (Nov. 24, 2009), a series of diagnostic tests on the right-rear wheel was commanded. The test results indicated a fully functioning right-rear wheel free of obstruction. As part of the diagnostics, a short (1.5 meter) forward drive of the rover was commanded. The rover moved forward about 2 millimeters (0.08 inch). The plan ahead is to continue with extrication. Another 5-meter (16 feet) two-step drive is planned for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

As of Sol 2095 (Nov. 24, 2009), the rover solar array energy production was 325 watt-hours, with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.590 and a dust factor of 0.575. Total odometry is 7,730.00 meters (4.80 miles)."

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: 'Marquette' Study Continues - sols 2069-2075, Nov. 18-24, 2009:

"Opportunity has been investigating the rock known as "Marquette Island" over the last couple of weeks. This target is proving to be something unique that Opportunity has not encountered in more than 2000 Sols of exploring Mars.

The science team is theorizing this rock could be either be a type of meteorite that Opportunity has never seen before or it could be ejecta from deep within the Martian crust that might provide clues to Mars' geologic past. The rover completed Mšssbauer (MB) spectrometer and Alpha-Particle-X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) measurements on a rock target named "Peck Bay" last week. Peck Bay was also lightly brushed by the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT), which removed a layer of dust on the rock to expose the material beneath.

To gain additional information on Marquette Island, Opportunity has repeated the same set of measurements on an adjacent target called "Islington Bay." The miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) elevation mirror shroud is being opened when appropriate with the expectation of eventual dust cleaning. No dust cleaning of the Mini-TES mirror has been noted yet.

As of Sol 2075 (Nov. 24, 2009), the solar array energy production was 371 watt-hours, with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.512 and a dust factor of 0.520. Total odometry was 18,906.82 meters (11.75 miles)."

Landing sites

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status Report

"PASADENA, Calif. -- The team operating NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter plans to uplink protective files to the spacecraft next week as one step toward resuming the orbiter's research and relay activities.

Since the orbiter spontaneously rebooted its computer on Aug. 26, flight team engineers have been examining possible root causes and repercussions of that incident and three similar events this year on Feb. 23, June 3 and Aug. 6. Meanwhile, the team has kept the spacecraft in a precautionary, minimally active status called "safe mode."

The four reboots involved a device, called the "computer module interface controller," that controls which of two redundant main computers on the spacecraft is active. Still undetermined is whether trouble lies with that controller itself or with a voltage glitch elsewhere on the spacecraft. The Aug. 6 reboot, though not the other three, prompted a switch from one computer to its backup twin. More than 100 factors are under consideration as possible root causes."

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
All of the HiRISE images are archived here.