Blogs
Blog Archive
The Habitable Zone of Inhabited Planets
Posted by Jaime Green on 2014/07/07 03:14 CDT | 10 comments
A team of Colombian researchers are arguing for a new refinement to the idea of the habitable zone that takes the presence of life itself into account.
NASA selects Planetary Society LIFE Proposal
To study flight of LIFE experiment on ARM (Asteroid Redirect Mission)
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2014/06/19 06:10 CDT | 5 comments
NASA has selected a Planetary Society proposal to study accommodation of the Society’s LIFE (Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment) biomodule on NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM).
Take My Free Online College Introduction to Planetary Science and Astronomy CSUDH Class
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2014/02/05 05:02 CST | 8 comments
Our own Dr. Bruce Betts is once again teaching his Introduction to Planetary Science and Astronomy college course online. Come join him.
Do you want to learn more about the Universe?
Posted by Matthew Francis on 2014/01/15 12:08 CST
CosmoAcademy — a project from the CosmoQuest educational and citizen-science group — is offering three new online classes: Introduction to Dark Matter, Introduction to Astronomy via Color Imaging, and Life Beyond Earth: Introduction to Astrobiology.
Book reviews: On habitable environments, and the rovers that explore them
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/12/21 09:25 CST | 2 comments
I've got some books to recommend on astrobiology, planet Earth and its living creatures, impact cratering, and Mars rovers.
Habitability, Taphonomy, and Curiosity's Hunt for Organic Carbon
Posted by John Grotzinger on 2013/12/21 08:47 CST | 4 comments
Lots of people ask questions about how the Curiosity mission, and future missions, will forge ahead to begin with looking for evidence of past life on Mars. There is nothing simple or straightforward about looking for life.
Our Improved Optical Search for ET
New hardware processes terabytes of data every second
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2013/10/08 11:15 CDT
The Planetary Society Optical SETI (OSETI) Telescope was successfully upgraded and fully tested, and is now fully operational looking for aliens. Here are some updates on the performance and progress. In summary, the upgraded telescope is performing just as hoped and is scanning the skies.
Planetary Radio Live Celebrates Curiosity/Truly Haute Cuisine!
Listen to or watch the webcast recorded Saturday, December 15th, and enjoy a neat little French animation.
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/12/20 04:06 CST
Listen to or watch the webcast recorded Saturday, December 15th with MSL Project Manager Richard Cook and Project Scientist John Grotzinger. Bonus: enjoy a neat little French animation.
Watch Planetary Radio LIVE on Saturday!
Saturday's webcast is all about Curiosity on Mars
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/12/15 11:10 CST | 1 comment
Watch the live show at 2pm Pacific on Saturday, December 15 to see Bill Nye, Emily Lakdawalla and the leaders of the Mars Science Laboratory rover mission.
More than you probably wanted to know about Curiosity's SAM instrument
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/11/30 12:31 CST | 25 comments
With all the hoopla surrounding the unknown results of the first analysis of a soil sample by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, I thought an explainer would be useful. What is SAM, what is it designed to measure, and what is the nature of its results? Here you go.
VIDEOS: Nye & Teens in Space as Curiosity Lands in Hi-Def!
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/09/19 12:06 CDT | 2 comments
Losing your enthusiasm for space exploration and science? Watch these new and terrific videos for an exhilarating shot of Vitamin S.
Thursday: Watch Bill Nye Host YouTube SpaceLab Webcast
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/09/11 04:55 CDT
The Planetary Society CEO goes to London to MC a live conversation with ISS astronaut Sunita Williams and the kids who've had their experiments conducted in orbit.
Optical SETI Gets a Major Upgrade
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/08/30 03:57 CDT | 5 comments
The Planetary Society Optical SETI Telescope in Harvard, Massachusetts just got a major upgrade of its electronics. The telescope, which has been operating the only all-sky optical SETI survey since its opening in 2006, is run by Harvard University Professor Paul Horowitz and his team. The telescope scans the sky every clear night with a 72-inch primary mirror, looking for laser pulses as short as one billionth of a second that could be transmitted by distant extraterrestrials. When observing, it has been able to process 1 terabit (trillion bits) of data every second, that’s as much as in all the books in print every second.
Full Free Intro Astronomy Class Now Online
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/05/22 02:57 CDT | 1 comment
Bruce Betts' complete CSUDH Intro Astronomy and Planetary Science class is now available online. Find out how to access it, and go behind the scenes.
Earth’s toughest life could survive on Mars
Posted by Mike Malaska on 2012/05/15 06:22 CDT | 6 comments
The surface of Mars is a tough place to survive, but researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) found some lichens and cyanobacteria tough enough to handle those conditions.
Is there life on Venus? Not in reprocessed Venera-13 images.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/01/23 12:56 CST
At the end of last week, a rather sensational article appeared in both the Russian- and English-language sites of the Russian news agency, RIA Novosti. "Life Spotted on Venus - Russian Scientist," ran the English headline; a Google translation of the Russian one goes: "The Soviet probes may have photographed creatures on Venus."
NOVA: Finding Life Beyond Earth airs tonight, with lots of planetary stars
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/10/19 02:10 CDT
Programming note: tonight, public television stations will be airing a new, two-hour NOVA documentary, "Finding Life Beyond Earth."
Origins 2011 conference, part 2
Posted by Frank Trixler on 2011/07/27 10:03 CDT
In this, my second blog on Origins 2011 in Montpellier, France, a conference dedicated to the interdisciplinary research on the origins of life, I aim to provide my impression of the second half of the conference.
Origins 2011 conference, part 1
Posted by Frank Trixler on 2011/07/14 12:53 CDT
The Origins 2011 conference, which took place last week in Montpellier, France, was dedicated to the origins of life and its occurrence in the universe. At this meeting, scientists from very different disciplines came together to share their ideas.
Why haven't we found evidence for life starting in asteroids?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/05/10 01:51 CDT
Here's a theoretical paper that asks an interesting question: When the solar system was very young and still very hot, could medium-sized asteroids have been habitable abodes for life?
JOIN THE
PLANETARY SOCIETY
Our Curiosity Knows No Bounds!
Become a member of The Planetary Society and together we will create the future of space exploration.
Featured Video
Connect With Us
Facebook! Twitter! Google+ and more…
Continue the conversation with our online community!
