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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Glitter and glow
This week we look forward to launches, gaze at glowing auroras, and get creative with glitter.
Europa Clipper: A mission backed by advocates
Europa Clipper will soon head for Jupiter's icy, potentially habitable moon. Without the advocacy efforts of The Planetary Society and our members, the mission may never have been possible.
Cloudy skies, smooth sailing
A Martian cloud atlas, LightSail wins big, and multiple missions coast toward launch.
How to spot Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas
Catch this comet over the next few days, and check back in a couple weeks when it may shine even brighter.
The Hera launch: What to expect
The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch a mission to study the aftermath of DART's impact on the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos.
Could Europa Clipper find life?
For a mission that doesn’t aim to find alien life, Europa Clipper may come surprisingly close.
Where Congress Stands on NASA's 2025 budget
Weeks before the new fiscal year, Congress still hasn't finalized NASA's 2025 budget.
Spacecraft, what do your robot eyes see?
Cameras on spacecraft are our eyes into the Cosmos. Sometimes they teach us things, sometimes they reveal gaps in our knowledge.
The Europa Clipper launch: What to expect
NASA is preparing to launch its flagship mission to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. Launching as early as Oct. 10, 2024, and arriving in 2030, the mission will explore the icy world with a subsurface ocean that scientists think could have conditions favorable to life.
Someone’s aliens
Life thrives on Earth, and we even send evidence of our presence out into the Solar System. Is anyone out there looking for us?
New insights into asteroid properties: A STEP Grant update
A Planetary Society-funded project to understand asteroids achieved its main goals and scientific objectives this year.
Connecting ancient life to other worlds
Looking to the past to guide the search for life.
Earthlings as aliens
Looking at life on Earth from another perspective.
Your impact: September equinox 2024
Exploring Europa and defending Earth.
Extraterrestrial artifacts
Could the Solar System host traces of other intelligent life?
Inside, underneath, backward, upside-down
From holes on Mars to a spun-around moon and a flipped reflection, space science involves looking at things from all different angles.
The Tianlin Space Telescope
China is in the early stages of planning a huge space observatory to help answer the matter of whether we are alone in the galaxy.
Why the “habitable zone” doesn’t always mean habitable
The habitable zone is a useful concept in astrobiology, but it can sometimes paint an over-simplified picture of planetary habitability.
Super-size it
Europa Clipper is a big spacecraft with big solar panels, all so it can perform a big mission. The galaxy is big too, and a Planetary Society member painted it that way.
Wow! Boom! Ultra cool!
The “Wow!" signal has a new explanation, and an ultra-cool experiment advances quantum sensing in space. Plus, making an asteroid go “boom!” might work, depending on the circumstances.