Articles

Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.

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.

How China's lunar relay satellite arrived in its final orbit

It took 24 days for Queiqiao to reach an Earth-Moon L2 halo orbit.

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.

Capitol building with cherry blossoms FB card

NASA's 2019 Budget Takes Shape

The Senate and House have now released details of how they would fund NASA in 2019. Check out the good, bad, and ugly in these proposals and learn what happens next.

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.

Get ready for OSIRIS-REx at Bennu! ...but be patient.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx will get the first sight of its target Bennu in August and go into orbit in December.

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.

Reaching Higher for Space

We humans have always looked to the night sky and pondered our place in the cosmos.

A Planetary Vacuum Successfully Takes a Rocket Ride

Rocket science met planetary science in the California desert when PlanetVac, a new planetary surface sampling technique, was successfully tested on a Xodiac rocket.

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.

NASA is beloved; the Moon, not so much

A new poll shows broad support for space exploration in the United States. But sending astronauts to the Moon ranks as the lowest priority among the public.

Coronal mass ejections and Earth's magnetosphere

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.

The Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Makes Tracks on Magical Mystery Tour of Different Rocks

Opportunity continued exploring the south trough of Perseverance in May, still looking for evidence that explains just how this one-of-a-kind valley meandering through Endeavour Crater’s rim formed.