Articles

Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.

Two moons making waves in the rings

Just a pretty picture post, a dramatic Cassini shot on the outer edge of the A ring captured earlier this month.

Lutetia in Rosetta's sights

It's unimpressive now, but in a few weeks the pinpoint of light at the center of this photo of a starry sky will loom very large to Rosetta's cameras.

Jupiter's faded belt: It's happened before, and it'll happen again

When I wrote a post about Jupiter's missing South Equatorial Belt in May, I had three main questions: how long did it take for the belt to go away, has this happened before, and how can a planet as big as Jupiter change its appearance so quickly?

Is this SMART-1's impact site?

Speaking of spacecraft crashing...

Hayabusa's return: a review

Hayabusa's return: round up some of the amazing photos, movies, and artworks that were posted and shared and Tweeted and re-Tweeted over the previous dozen hours or so.

Titan's rivers are square

There's a new

Big hunks of carbonate rock on Mars at last

Carbonate rocks should be all over Mars. But it's been hard to find carbonates—surprisingly so.

Full Triple-J Laser Interview

Hey, remember when I was randomly interviewed by the Australian radio station triple j a few weeks ago as part of their feature on the 50th anniversary of the laser?

Six days left for Hayabusa: A recap of the mission

The Hayabusa spacecraft is about to die. On Sunday, June 13, at 14:00 UTC, Hayabusa will burn up in Earth's atmosphere, bringing its dramatic seven-year mission to an end.

Jupiter on June 3, 2010: Impact flash recorded by Anthony Wesley

The June 3 Jupiter Impact: 22 hours later

Time to take stock of what happened a day ago. The worldwide, round-the-clock nature of planetary science is both exhilarating and challenging!

Confirmation of the Jupiter impact from Christopher Go

The impact flash on Jupiter observed earlier today by Anthony Wesley has been confirmed by Philippines-based amateur astronomer Christopher Go.

A NEW! Impact on Jupiter

On the same day as a team of astronomers released new Hubble Space Telescope images of last year's Jupiter impact, the original discoverer of the 2009 impact scar, Anthony Wesley, reported on an amateur astronomy forum that he had observed a new impact on Jupiter.