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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: The Space Between
Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block shares some of his beautiful photos showcasing interstellar phenomena.
Gaia's first galaxy map
The astronomy world is abuzz today because of ESA's announcement of the first release of data from the Gaia mission. Gaia is a five-year mission that will eventually measure the positions and motions of billions of stars; this first data release includes positions for 1.1 billion of them, and proper motions for 2 million.
WISE Views in Infrared
Amateur image processor Judy Schmidt explains the process of creating gorgeous views of the cosmos from infrared data from the WISE telescope.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: The Eye of Sauron
Astrophotographer Adam Block shares his latest image, this time of a menacing spiral galaxy.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Shadow Play
Adam Block brings us his first images processed in the new year, showcasing the beautiful interplay of light and dark.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Distant Galaxies
Astrophotographer Adam Block shares stunning his images of far-away spiral galaxies.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Lesser-Known Beauty
Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block shares stunning images of a few rarely-imaged pieces of our universe.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Long Exposures
Astrophotographer Adam Block brings us images showcasing beauty in details requiring extended exposures to capture.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Star Stream
Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block presents the first-ever high-resolution color images of the
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Special Qualities
Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block shares some images of nebulae and a galaxy with some special qualities to each of them.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Life and Death in the Universe
Astrophotographer Adam Block brings us images showcasing the evolutionary cycles in our universe.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Overlooked
Astrophotographer Adam Block showcases some stunning images of lesser-known galaxies and nebulae.
Short updates on Akatsuki and Chang'e missions
A few recent newspaper articles provide some updates on the status of Japan's Venus mission, Akatsuki, and the service module of China's Chang'e 5 test vehicle, Xiaofei. In brief: Akatsuki still plans to attempt to enter orbit in December of this year, while Chang'e 5 T1 is headed to lunar orbit. Meanwhile, the Chang'e 3 mission has released an interesting image of M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Infinity
Astrophotographer Adam Block shares four stunning images capturing the expansiveness of the universe.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Strange and spooky
Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block shares his haunting images of three different types of nebulae.
Remember Comet Siding Spring? Mars Orbiter Mission got photos, too
A set of photos released by Mars Orbiter Mission last week completes the set of Mars spacecraft observations of the comet. Now we wait for science results!
The Birth of the Modern Universe
Amir Alexander reviews Alan Hirshfeld's newest book,
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Perception
Astrophotographer Adam Block shares two recent images of star clusters, along with a pair of depth perception-defying galaxies.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Interacting Galaxies
Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block showcases some of his stunning images of what happens when galaxies get a little too close to each other.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos
Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block shares some of his recent work.