All
All
Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
The Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Mission Completes 14 Years of Exploring, Opportunity Roves into Year 15!
In January, Opportunity quietly completed 14 years of surface operations on Mars—the longest-lived robot on another planet.
Engineering Qualification Model confirms performance of the Mastcam-Z!
Just this past week, assembly of the Mastcam-Z EQM was completed, and we saw for the first time what one of our Mars zoom cameras would really look like.
Reconstructing the Viking '75 Mars lander Surface Sampler Collector
Viking enthusiast Tom Dahl has created an animation demonstrating the operation of the Viking lander's Surface Sampler Acquisition Assembly, or
New Horizons prepares for encounter with 2014 MU69
Throughout 2018, New Horizons will cruise toward its January 1 encounter with 2014 MU69. Preparations for the flyby are nearly complete.
Dawn Journal: 4 Billion Miles
Permanently in residence at dwarf planet Ceres, Dawn is now preparing to add some finishing touches to its mission.
A new look at Venus with Akatsuki
Amateur image processor Damia Bouic shares a plethora of stunning new images of Venus captured by a Japanese spacecraft.
HiRISE image coverage of the Curiosity field site on Mars, Version 4.0
The latest and greatest update of Emily's list of all the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE images that contain Curiosity hardware, tracks, or traverses.
No plumes? No problem. How Europa Clipper will analyze an icy moon's ocean
Europa doesn't have grandiose plumes like Enceladus. So how will the Clipper mission figure out what's in Europa's ocean?
Curiosity update, sols 1814-1926: Vera Rubin Ridge Walkabout
Curiosity is climbing across the top of Vera Rubin Ridge, spying varicolored rocks. It's getting closer to being ready to drill again, and has performed a wet chemistry experiment for the first time.
The Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Beats Winter, Wraps 2017, and Heads for 14th Anniversary
With the Martian winter on the run, Opportunity cruised closer to its 14th anniversary of exploring the Red Planet in December as she deliberated a distinctive “fork in the road” deep in Perseverance Valley and wrapped another record year.
Mastcam-Z team blog: Landing sites
It takes years to decide where a Mars rover is going to land. Members of NASA's Mars 2020's camera team describe their participation in the process.
What's Up in Solar System Exploration in 2018
Three launches to the Moon and one each to Mercury and Mars; two arrivals at near-Earth asteroids; and an approach to an encounter with a distant Kuiper belt object are highlights we anticipate in 2018.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Snapshots of Chaos
Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block brings us stunning images of beautifully chaotic scenes across the universe.
#AGU17: Spherical harmonics, gravity, and the depth of winds at Jupiter
Results from the Juno gravity science experiment presented at last week's American Geophysical Union meeting suggest Jupiter's winds penetrate only to 3000 kilometers deep.
Downselect: NASA narrows future mission destination to comet 67P or Titan
The winner will be picked in 2019.
A closer look at China's audacious Mars sample return plans
China is making steady progress on a proposed mission to bring a piece of Mars back to Earth in the late 2020s.
#AGU17: JunoCam science
JunoCam may be an outreach instrument, but its superb photos of storms on Jupiter are providing plenty of data for scientists to talk about.
Brief note from #AGU17: Juno observes volcanism on Io
At the American Geophysical Union meeting, members of the Juno team showed observations of active volcanism on Jupiter's moon Io.
An exoplanet-hunting space telescope turns and takes a photo of Earth
On December 10, Kepler—NASA’s prized exoplanet discovery telescope—will finally turn back and take a picture of the Earth.
The Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Returns Fundamental Finding in Perseverance, Cruises Through Winter Solstice
Opportunity continued the historic winter science campaign inside Perseverance Valley and delivered the goods that confirmed an important discovery in November, and then cruised through winter solstice, driving the mission closer to its 14th anniversary of surface operations coming up in January.



Sun
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Small Bodies