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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Dawn Journal: Going Out on a High...Or Maybe a Low
Rapidly nearing the end of a unique decade-long interplanetary expedition, Dawn is taking phenomenal pictures of dwarf planet Ceres as it swoops closer to the ground than ever before.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: The Cosmic Ocean
Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block shares some of his most recent images of our amazing and beautiful universe.
New goodies from asteroid Ryugu!
Two new global views of Ryugu from Hayabusa2, plus a 3-D animation.
The Bounty of Iron Meteorites Found on Mars
Something new and wonderful appeared in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database—an entire listing of meteorites found on Mars by robotic rovers and their science teams from the years 2005–2017.
Walking on Mars: Bringing the Red Planet Down to Earth
What happens when you print a map of Mars the size of a basketball court?
What's the benefit of sample return?
With Hayabusa2 at Ryugu and OSIRIS-REx closing on Bennu, it's the summer of sample return. Why do scientists go to so much trouble for a piece of a another world?
The Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Sleeps as Storm Chasers Study Planet-Encircling Dust Cloud
As a monster dust storm grew to encircle the Red Planet in June, Opportunity spent most of the month in the dark, presumably sleeping in a hibernation mode as the skies over Endeavour Crater became darker and darker.
Curiosity update, sols 2027-2092: Return to drilling at Duluth, sciencing the dust storm
Hooray! Curiosity has triumphantly returned to drilling with a successful drill and delivery to its lab instruments at a site named Duluth. It's now studying the dust storm as it drives to new drill sites on Vera Rubin ridge.
Hayabusa2 arrived at Ryugu, so I can make comparisons of asteroid scales!
On 26 June 2018, Hayabusa2 arrived at its target asteroid, Ryugu. In a very brief status update, I present comparisons of Ryugu to other previously visited asteroids and comets.
Hayabusa2 update: New views of Ryugu and corkscrew course adjustments
Ryugu has continued to grow in Hayabusa2's forward view, resolving into a diamond-shaped body with visible bumps and craters! They've done hazard searches, optical navigation imaging, and measured the rotation rate at 7.6 hours.
Rotatin' Ryugu!
Hayabusa2 continues to approach asteroid Ryugu, revealing the 900-meter-wide world in all its glory.
Favorite Astro Plots: The Pyroxene Quadrilateral
Petrology is a field of science in which scientists study the compositions of rocks and minerals and interpret their geologic history. A common graph petrologists use is the “pyroxene quadrilateral.” These graphs, like photos of space, can reveal an understanding of the remotest parts of the solar system.
Dawn Journal: Spiralling Down
Propelled by the perfect combination of xenon ions, hydrazine rocket propellant and adrenaline, Dawn is on the verge of its most ambitious exploits yet.
The Mars Exploration Rovers Update Special Report: Opportunity Pummeled by Massive Dust Storm, Hunkers Down to Sleep
Entrenched in the west rim of Endeavour Crater, veteran robot field geologist Opportunity is hunkered down in Perseverance Valley in a kind of hibernation mode.
Hayabusa2: Ryugu takes shape
Hayabusa2 is now less than 1000 kilometers away from Ryugu, and the tiny asteroid is beginning to betray its shape.
Chinese satellite snags new views of Earth from lunar orbit
See the world through the eyes of Longjiang-2.
Meet MMX, Japan's sample return mission to Phobos
NASA is providing an instrument for the mission, which will try to uncover the origins of Phobos and Deimos.
Hayabusa2's Approach phase has begun with a new photo of Ryugu!
On June 3, Hayabusa2 ended use of its ion engines, for now, and is coasting the remaining distance toward Ryugu. It's using an optical navigation camera to image the asteroid's position against a field of background stars to help it navigate.
Big news from the magnetosphere
At five years and counting, the Van Allen Probes mission continues to reshape our thinking about how Earth’s radiation belts flex and reconfigure under the influence of solar storms.
A WIYN-win partnership
NASA and the National Science Foundation are teaming up to observe exoplanets discovered by Kepler and TESS.



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