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Bill Nye 'Dancing With the Stars' Update

Posted by Abigail Fraeman on 2013/09/25 01:52 CDT

We're two weeks in to ‘Dancing with the Stars’ season 17, and Bill Nye has shown that, true to his TV-theme song lyric, "science rules" in the eyes of the audience.

Go LADEE!
Planetary Radio Live Launch Special

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/09/10 10:41 CDT

Listen to or watch the recording of our live celebration for LADEE as the spacecraft blasted off for the moon.

Watch LADEE Launch to the Moon with The Planetary Society
Live Webcast Begins HERE at 7:30pm PDT / 10:30pm EDT

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/09/06 08:45 CDT

Starting at 7:30pm PDT/10:30pm EDT, we will webcast a special event around the launch of NASA's next lunar spacecraft. Watch our special coverage with lunar scientists and live video from the launch site, as well as NASA TV footage of the launch itself.

Bill Nye and Tyne Stecklein on Dancing with the Stars

Bill Nye takes to the dance floor

Posted by Abigail Fraeman on 2013/09/04 11:51 CDT | 2 comments

It was announced this morning that Bill will be appearing as a contestant on the American hit show, “Dancing with the Stars”. I am so excited. "How will Bill fare?" you may ask. Consider the following...

One Year on Mars: My Favorite Moments from Planetfest 2012

Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/08/06 04:28 CDT | 1 comments

It seems like it was just yesterday that 2000 people gathered in the Pasadena Convention Center to celebrate Curiosity's landing on Mars. All of Planetfest 2012 is online for your enjoyment.

Movie SciFi With Real Science? What a Concept!
Europa Report is available on demand and online, and in theaters on August 2

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/07/30 10:14 CDT | 1 comments

This week's Planetary Radio features the new indy film that relies on the best available science to create a thrilling and inspiring human mission to Jupiter's moon.

The New Cosmos Series Has a Trailer

Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/07/21 06:30 CDT | 7 comments

The remake of Cosmos, starring Neil deGrasse Tyson and airing on Fox, just released its first teaser trailer at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Return of the Pale Blue Dot
Join the Wave at Saturn (and Mercury)!

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/07/18 11:27 CDT | 4 comments

You can be part of a planetwide group photo as Cassini and MESSENGER turn their cameras Earthward on July 19.

Woohoo! The LEGO Curiosity rover is going to be a kit!

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/06/18 07:02 CDT | 2 comments

The awesome LEGO Curiosity rover designed by Stephen Pakbaz is going to go into production!

Finding faces and animals on Mars

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/30 10:05 CDT | 7 comments

This week's "lizard" or "rat" on Mars is just the latest of a never-ending stream of so-called discoveries of animate and inanimate objects in images returned from the Red Planet. I challenge you readers to find more such objects in one Curiosity panorama.

Some similar-sized objects in the solar system

Friday fun: Every moon in the solar system in an homage to Tom Lehrer

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/24 08:53 CDT | 3 comments

A girl named Hope Johnson performing an homage to Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" in song and ukelele, except instead of the elements, she's singing the names of all the named moons in the solar system. Check it out!

Planetary Society Hangout: A Day in the Life of the Opportunity Rover with Emily Dean
Thursday, May 9, at noon PDT/1900h UTC

Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/05/09 02:20 CDT | 1 comments

Thursday, May 9th, at noon PDT/3pm EDT/1900h UTC, we are joined by Emily Dean, who works on the camera team for the Opportunity rover on Mars.

We have a winner! The OSIRIS-REx asteroid's name is: Bennu!

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/01 09:37 CDT

We received more than 8000 entries from all over the world in the Name That Asteroid contest, and we can finally announce the winner. The asteroid formerly known as 1999 RQ36 is now formally named (101955) Bennu, for a heron associated with the Egyptian god Osiris.

Awesome interactive solar system exploration history infographic

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/04/25 11:26 CDT | 2 comments

Check out this absolutely wonderful infographic, produced by Olaf Frohn, that summarizes the entire history of solar system exploration.

An Amazing Evening for Planetary Defense
Join us via Planetary Radio and complete video coverage.

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/04/23 07:12 CDT | 1 comments

Bill Nye, Bruce Betts, Mat Kaplan, Meteorite Man Geoffrey Notkin and stars of planetary science at the Planetary Defense Conference public event in Flagstaff.

NASA's Planetary Doublespeak

Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/04/11 06:22 CDT | 3 comments

NASA went on an unusual tweet-binge praising planetary science today, saying that the struggling division "thrives" and highlighting various missions mainly developed in better times. NASA made five tweets in a row about planetary science over the course of two hours.

Covering the European Geosciences Conference in Vienna

Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/04/04 05:50 CDT | 3 comments

Live in Vienna? Attending EGU? I'll be covering the conference next week for the Society.

Planetary Society Weekly Hangout: Programming in the Sciences
Thursday, Apr 4th at noon PDT/1900 UTC

Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/04/03 02:30 CDT

Thursday, Apr 4th at noon PDT/1900 UTC we continue our weekly Live Hangouts. Join us this week with Chase Million, founder of Million Concepts, a company devoted to providing high-quality code to scientists.