Articles

The Downlink

Reminisce about the influential Viking missions, picture seeing your all-time favorites on your wall, and get excited for what’s to come.

The Downlink

When we look at our planet, look for life, or direct a rover to look at itself, we see ourselves in new ways.

The Downlink

Squid, mice, and stuffed animals may seem like Earthlings, but this week they’re coming to you from space.

The Downlink

Jupiter is a world of extremes, and Venus hints at some mysteries. You can take action to help learn more about these worlds and others.

The Downlink

Perseverance’s tracks show where it’s been. You can help decide where we’re going.

Heidi Hammel

Twenty-five years ago, multiple fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, changing the face of the planet and the course of planetary science.

Adam Block

Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block shares some of his latest images highlighting some hidden gems.

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily Lakdawalla takes us on a tour of the spacecraft currently exploring from within our solar system. All planets and spacecraft locations are shown at their location for April 1st, 2019.

Casey Dreier

If you're expecting to gather with extended family on Thanksgiving, avoid the politics. Here are some conversation starters to use at the dinner table that everyone can engage in.

Peter Rosén

Peter Rosén shares an amazing animation of Jupiter made from more than 1,000 images taken by 91 amateurs from around the world.

Jake Rosenthal

Jake Rosenthal takes us on a tour of the history of discovery of our place in the cosmos.

Emily Lakdawalla

The third-largest object known beyond Neptune, 2007 OR10, has a moon. The discovery was reported in a poster by Gábor Marton, Csaba Kiss, and Thomas Mueller at the joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society (DPS/EPSC) on Monday.

Darin Ragozzine

Pluto’s small moons have unusual rotation rates and states. Now we know a moon of another dwarf planet does as well. Is there a connection?

Judy Schmidt

Processing Hubble data presents a host of challenges, and the first of these has nothing to do with processing at all.

Alex Parker

The solar system beyond Neptune is full of worlds hosting moons. Now we know that the dwarf planet Makemake has one of its very own.

Leigh Fletcher

A summary of Jupiter's changing face as seen from Earth during its 2014/2015 apparition.

Emily Lakdawalla

What is the solar system moon with the densest atmosphere? Most space fans know that the answer is Titan. A few of you might know that Triton's is the next densest. But what's the third? Fourth? Do any other moons even have atmospheres? In fact, they do; and one such atmosphere has just been discovered.

Emily Lakdawalla

A newly published paper confirms a subsurface ocean at Ganymede. An ocean there was already suspected from its magnetic field and predicted by geophysics; new Hubble data confirms it, and even says it is in the same place we thought it was before. Such consistency is rare enough in planetary science to be worth celebration.

Ted Stryk

Ted Stryk showcases some of his processed versions of recent Hubble Space Telescope views of Mars.

Emily Lakdawalla

Ever since I first learned about the capabilities of Mars Orbiter Mission's small payload of science instruments, I have been anticipating one type of data in particular: global color views of Mars captured in a single 2000-pixel-square frame. Just days after entering orbit, Mars Orbiter Mission has delivered on that promise.