(From west to east)

• Flora is in the constellation of Taurus.
• Eunomia is in the constellation of Gemini.
• Hebe is at opposition on the 6th in the constellation of Cancer.
• Information about the Minor Planets can be found at the Minor Planet Observer website.

"The Cassini spacecraft captures an intriguing feature in the perturbed core of Saturn's F ring.

The feature is similar in appearance to the one captured in F Ring Dynamism.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 32 degrees above the ringplane.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 31, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-ring-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 63 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel."

Cassini Imaging Team

"New Horizons detected Pluto using the high-resolution mode of its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) during three separate sets of observations in October 2007. This made it easier for scientists to "find" Pluto among a sea of background stars."

"NASA's Dawn spacecraft has successfully completed the initial checkout phase of the mission and begun its interplanetary cruise phase, which is highlighted by nearly continuous thrusting of its ion propulsion system. Dawn is on a 8-year, 3-billion mile journey to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres."

"After a journey of more than 2.2 billion miles and three and a half years, NASAÕs MESSENGER spacecraft made its first flyby of Mercury just after 2 PM Eastern Standard Time on January 14, 2008. All seven scientific instruments worked flawlessly, producing a stream of surprises that is amazing and delighting the science team. The 1,213 mages conclusively show that the planet is a lot less like the Moon than many previously thought, with features unique to this innermost world. The puzzling magnetosphere appears to be very different from what Mariner 10 discovered and first sampled almost 34 years ago."

"As expected, scientists at JPL's Near-Earth Object Office have further refined the trajectory estimate for asteroid 2007 WD5 and ruled out any possibility of a Mars impact on Jan. 30. The latest trajectory plot of the asteroid was made possible by adding to previously obtained data some new data from a round of observations acquired by three observatories on the evenings of Jan. 5 through 8. Based on this latest analysis, the odds for the asteroid impacting Mars on Jan. 30 are 0.0 percent. The latest observations come from the German-Spanish Astronomical Center, Calar Alto, Spain; the Multi-Mirror Telescope, Mt. Hopkins, Ariz.; and the University of Hawaii telescope, Mauna Kea, Hawaii."

"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 http://themis.asu.edu."

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

January 21-25, 2008

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

• Aonia Terra Dunes (Released 21 January 2008)
  
• Copernicus Dunes (Released 22 January 2008)
  
• Dust Devil Tracks (Released 23 January 2008)
  
• Gullies (Released 24 January 2008)
  
• Gullies (Released 25 January 2008)
  
• 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: Spirit Makes It to a North-Facing Slope - sol 1404-1408, December 21, 2007

"Spirit has achieved 13 degrees of northerly tilt after backing the rear and middle wheels over the north edge of "Home Plate," where the rover will remain during the coming holidays. Power levels have already increased significantly from 260 watt-hours on sol 1404 (Dec. 15, 2007) to 291 watt-hours on sol 1408 (Dec. 19, 2007).

Spirit's ideal northerly tilt at present would be 16 degrees, and the rover's handlers plan to have the rover creep farther down the slope in mid-January to increase the northerly tilt. On Spirit's current track, they expect to see an ultimate northerly tilt of 25 degrees to 30 degrees."

Opportunity Status: Opportunity Maneuvers Around Steeper Slopes in "Victoria Crater" - sol 1375-1381, Dec 17, 2007

"Opportunity is now in the process of driving to the third band of light-colored rocks that circumscribe "Victoria Crater" beneath the rim. Scientists had initially planned to have the rover head directly downhill to a rock target nicknamed "Ronov," within the band known as "Lyell." They selected an alternate rock exposure, dubbed "Newell," when engineers determined that the original drive route would tilt the rover 25 degrees, somewhat higher than desired. The estimated tilt along the new route is a much gentler 20 degrees but the drive is somewhat more complex and required two days of planning.

During the past week, Opportunity completed scientific investigation of the second band of rocks, known as "Smith," with an analysis of elemental chemistry and iron-bearing minerals beneath the surface of a rock exposure labeled "Smith2." To do this, the rover collected data with the alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer Mössbauer spectrometer, respectively."

Landing sites