Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

A recently published paper proposes that much of the sedimentary rock on Mars formed during rare, brief periods of very slight wetness under melting snow.

Casey Dreier

All cylinders are firing here in the Society as we rev up a big response for the White House's NASA budget that proposes another $200 million cut to Planetary Science.

Emily Lakdawalla

The Planetary Society is looking for a bright, motivated person with superb attentiveness to detail who wants hands-on web editing experience.

Michele Bannister

On April 9, the current Australian government announced the first formal Australian space policy. Astronomy graduate student Michele Bannister explains what this means for the country.

Bill Dunford

Cassini's unique views of Jupiter and Saturn.

Emily Lakdawalla

Виталий Егоров (Vitaliy Egorov) is a Russian space enthusiast who enlisted help of fellow enthusiasts to search for -- and maybe find -- the Russian Mars 3 hardware on the Martian surface. Here he explains how he did it.

Emily Lakdawalla

My guest this was Planetary Society Board vice president Heidi Hammel. We discussed two planets near and dear to our hearts, Neptune and Uranus. What's new on these icy worlds since Voyager 2 passed by, and what are the prospects for their future exploration?

Jason Davis

Orbital Sciences Corporation is ready to send their Antares rocket system on its inaugural flight.

Van Kane

No mission to Europa, diminished funding for outer planets missions, a small bump to small spacecraft missions, and an increase for asteroid detection are part of the White House's proposal for NASA in 2014.

Casey Dreier

NASA's new budget doubles down on cuts to Planetary Science, despite Congress rejecting a similar proposal last year.

Bill Nye

The Administration just released its proposed budget for 2014 and it contains some very bad news for NASA's planetary exploration program. Just three weeks ago the U.S. Congress rejected similar cuts proposed for planetary exploration last year. It was a clear statement of support by both Congress and the public: planetary exploration is an affordable national priority.

Emily Lakdawalla

Doug Ellison shared this lovely panorama via Twitter over the weekend. It's from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, taken back in 2004. The drunken path in the foreground is a visual record of just how exciting it was for Spirit to have finally made it to the Columbia Hills, and to rocks that were not fragments of basalt.

Casey Dreier

NASA's Curiosity rover has acquired further evidence that Mars's atmosphere was once dense enough to support liquid water on the surface.

Bill Dunford

Dispatches from five different worlds--all sent by robotic spacecraft on the same day.

Casey Dreier

Despite a $223 million boost from Congress this year, NASA's Planetary Science Division may not be allowed to use that money so NASA can prevent cuts in other programs.

Emily Lakdawalla

Some beautiful photos of a recent gliding flight test of SpaceShipTwo.

Emily Lakdawalla

I've been to a lot of conferences and seen a lot of talks and it's amazing to me how a bad presentation can get in the way of really exciting science. Here are my recommendations for how to approach a talk, and tips and tricks to make your talk better.

On April 12, 2013, the world’s biggest space party will take place across the globe. So far there are 190 parties in 32 countries on 6 continents registered and counting!!

Emily Lakdawalla

Some silly fun to brighten your Wednesday.

Michael Poston

The case for water ice hidden in permanently shadowed regions at the north pole of the planet Mercury received another boost recently. On Wednesday March 20, 2013 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Nancy Chabot presented the very first visible-light images of what is in the shadows of these polar craters.