Explore Worlds
Find Life
Defend Earth
All
All
Sun
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Could there be life on Venus?
Explore exciting news in the search for life beyond Earth, and take a trip down memory lane with our co-founder.
What’s up (and down) in space?
Wrap your head around orientations in space, and learn the latest in space exploration news.
Jupiter from near and far, and two humans return to Earth
This week, learn about the conditions of the early solar system and get ready for next week’s meteor shower, plus more.
The Next 10 Years
Six scientists share the major planetary science discoveries of the past decade, and the questions that will drive the next 10 years of solar system exploration.
Planetary Society Talks Europa, Planetary Defense, and Solar Sailing in Washington D.C.
Thanks to our members and donors, The Planetary Society participated in several activities at the 2019 International Astronautical Conference.
What the Shoemaker-Levy 9 Impact Taught Us
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.
Voyager Wide-Angle Views of Jupiter
Last month marked the 40th anniversary of the historic Voyager 1 encounter with Jupiter in 1979.
The Realm of the Ice Giants
Imagine 2 icy worlds far from the Sun. Their serene, blue atmospheres. Huge, ominous-looking storms. Tantalizing glimpses of moons with exotic, icy terrains. Delicate sets of encircling rings.
Why are there no stars in most space images?
Look up at space at night from a dark location and you can see innumerable stars. Why, then, do photos of so many things in space show black space, devoid of stars?
A new look at Europa, with old data
Ted Stryk shows us a new color, near-global view of Europa made from Galileo spacecraft data captured in 1996.
The Making of Life
Michael L. Wong asks how our understanding of the origin of life on Earth informs our search for it elsewhere.
This Thanksgiving, avoid the politics and talk space instead
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.
When Space Science Becomes a Political Liability
John Culberson, an 8-term Texas Republican and staunch supporter the search for life on Europa, lost his re-election bid last week. His support for Europa was attacked by opponents and could send a chilling political message about the consequences of supporting space science and exploration.
How I created a Jupiter rotation video using Hubble data
Judy Schmidt shares the technique she used to make a beautiful new animation of Jupiter.
In search of ice and fire: Europa analog fieldwork in Iceland, 2018
The terrain of Iceland – the Land of Ice and Fire – has some very interesting similarities to Europa.
Looking at Io's Volcanoes Since Galileo
It’s been almost 17 years since NASA's Galileo spacecraft took meaningful data of Jupiter’s volcanic moon.
Here are some recent postcards from Jupiter
Let's check in on NASA's Juno spacecraft, which completed its 14th close flyby of Jupiter last month.
Eleven perijoves
Seán Doran has made a cool visual index to the images that JunoCam took during Juno's first 12 closest approaches to Jupiter.
Juno meets Cassini: A new merged global map of Jupiter
The Juno spacecraft that is currently orbiting Jupiter has obtained the first good images of Jupiter's polar regions. I am presenting here a combined global map of Jupiter, made from a Cassini map I made for the equatorial and temperate regions and polar maps made from the Juno JunoCam and JIRAM polar images.
Juno's 12th perijove in lifelike color
With the help of some preprocessing of JunoCam images by Mattias Malmer, Don Davis shows us how Jupiter might have looked on April 1, 2018, if we'd been aboard Juno.