Origin of the Moon

• hints: highland vs maria differences
• basic ideas
• artist's conception
• real simulation

Intermission

• Compare/contrast: this vs this

Mercury

• MESSENGER mission--three flybys so far, will orbit Mercury in 10 days!
• image gallery

Venus

• terrestrial planet comparison
• atmosphere
• surface: global view (radar)
• craters, lava flows
• surface closeup (from Soviet landers): Venera 9 & 10, 1975; Venera 13; Venera 14
• Runaway greenhouse effect

Mars

• Moons: Phobos here and here; Deimos
• Polar caps S. pole
• surface (Pathfinder, 1997)
• surface today: Endurance Crater, Engineering Flats, Columbia Hills, McMurdo panorama, clouds and sand
• The Face: Viking, 1976, Mars Globar Surveyor, 1998, Mars Express.
  another face, and a brain
• Craters
• Mount Olympus
• Water
  Past flows: channels, gullies, neutron Mars
  Present flows: landslides
  Phoenix lander blast cone and excavation
• a possible meteoritic fossil indication of life?