Articles

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

Imaging and imagination in space

Learn about The Planetary Society’s vision for the next decade of exploration and get up to speed on space news.

Asteroid Bennu during OSIRIS-REx sample rehearsal

Sample Return Roundup

It's a banner year for sample return missions. In 2020, China, Japan, and the United States are all scheduled to have sample return missions in flight, seeking to retrieve material from near-Earth asteroids, the Moon, and eventually Mars.

Every Mars landing attempt as of June 2020

Two maps by The Planetary Society show all the places we've landed or crashed on Mars as of June 2020.

Visiting Perseverance During Its Final Week at JPL

An undergraduate physics research student describes her visit to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to see the Perseverance rover before it shipped to Florida for launch.

Early 2020 Geologic Map of Jezero Crater (inset for thumbnails)

Here's How Scientists Mapped the Perseverance Rover's Landing Site

The maps will help plan scientific field trips for the rover as it explores an ancient river delta.

The Next 10 Years

Six scientists share the major planetary science discoveries of the past decade, and the questions that will drive the next 10 years of solar system exploration.

Two Mars Missions Are Gutted Despite Near-Record Funding for Planetary Science

A new budget submission from the White House would continue record-high funding for planetary science, but proposes deep cuts to 2 productive Mars missions and defers funding for deep space telescope dedicated to finding hazardous near-Earth objects.

A New Understanding

Abigail Fraeman examines how the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, changed our view of Mars.

What Comes Next on Mars?

Javier Gómez-Elvira anticipates the next phase of the search for life on the Red Planet.

The Solar System According to Carolyn Porco

The leader of the Cassini spacecraft imaging team discusses pale blue dots, life on Enceladus, terraforming Mars, Pluto, Carl Sagan, and more.

Global color view of Titan with a polar hood (7 December 2011)

In 1983, Carl Sagan Urged NASA to Send a Mission to Saturn and Titan

Long before the Cassini-Hugygens spacecraft launched in 1997 to explore Saturn and Titan, The Planetary Society urged NASA to make the mission a reality.

NASA to Build New Asteroid-Hunting Space Telescope

The yet-to-be-named telescope would launch as soon as 2024, as part of NASA's new, multi-pronged approach to planetary defense.

Astronomers May Have Found an Interstellar Comet. Here's Why That Matters.

Astrophysicist Karl Battams tells us what we can learn by studying objects from outside our solar system.

Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander deploying rover

India's Vikram Spacecraft Apparently Crash-Lands on Moon

Communications were lost with the lander, which was carrying a small rover named Pragyan to the lunar surface.

LightSail 2 Solar Sail over Baja California

The September Equinox 2019 Issue of The Planetary Report Is Out!

A new issue of The Planetary Report brings you our pride in the success of LightSail 2 and our gratitude to our members for making it happen. Plus Venus science from Akatsuki and Venus Express, and the status of planetary defense.