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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
A Clearer Impression of Degas Crater
MESSENGER is revealing the first planet in sharp detail.
Europa: How Less Can Be More
Van Kane explains three factors that make exploring Europa hard—factors that can make a mission concept that seems like less actually be more.
Buzz Mercury's North Polar Region in This New MESSENGER Video
A new video shows what a traveler aboard Mercury's MESSENGER spacecraft would see as they zipped over the planet's north polar region.
Skimming the inner planets: Updates on MESSENGER and Venus Express
The two spacecraft currently orbiting the two innermost planets are both flying low in their orbits in the final phases of their missions. MESSENGER just performed a rocket burn to raise its orbit slightly, while Venus Express did the opposite.
Snapshots of Science from the 2014 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
Vignettes from dozens of LPSC talks: GRAIL and LADEE at the Moon; ice and craters and conglomerates and organics and gullies on Mars; polar deposits and volatile elements on Mercury; tectonics on Enceladus; and more, until my brain was so full I could barely speak.
A Spin Through the Inner Solar System
Animated maps of the planets show the spheres in motion.
What are Mercury's hollows?
I've been fascinated by Mercury's hollows ever since MESSENGER discovered them. Two recent papers look at where they are found to try to figure out how they form.
The Giant Spider of Mercury
Striking terrain discovered by the MESSENGER probe.
The Mercury Transit You Probably Missed
Planetary transits of the Sun by Mercury and Venus don't come along very often, and when they do we make a big deal of it because, well, it's really cool!
DPS 2013: Some quick updates on Mercury
Some notes from the first day of the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting on Mercury.
New Messages from Mercury
We have new pictures from planet one.
Terra Cognita
Pushing back the frontier, and filling in the blank spaces on the map.
Return of the Pale Blue Dot
You can be part of a planetwide group photo as Cassini and MESSENGER turn their cameras Earthward on July 19.
A New Dimension for Mercury
There's a cool new way to explore the first planet.
The Shores of the Kraken Sea: Great Place Names in the Solar System
Nothing reflects the romance of deep space exploration more than the evocative names of places on the planets and moons.
Dueling Desolations: Mercury vs. the Moon
They look so similar they can be hard to tell apart, but each hides its own mysteries.
Planetary Society Weekly Hangout (Special Time): MESSENGER at Mercury with Larry Nittler, Fri May 3 5pm PDT / midnight UTC
Note the special time! In this week's Planetary Society hangout at 5pm PDT / midnight UTC, I'll talk with MESSENGER deputy principal investigator Larry Nittler about what MESSENGER has accomplished in its prime and extended missions at Mercury, and what it stands to do if awarded a mission extension.
One Day in the Solar System
Dispatches from five different worlds--all sent by robotic spacecraft on the same day.
LPSC 2013: Seeing in Permanent Shadow
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.
LPSC 2013: Do we have a meteorite from Mercury?
Before yesterday, my answer to this question would be