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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Seeking Small Worlds
A spacecraft leaves one asteroid as planetary defense experts turn to others.
Saving the World One Asteroid at a Time
Don’t leave it up to cosmic fate; take action right now to defend our planet from dangerous impacts.
Moon, Mars and a Meteor Shower
Remembering a space pioneer and seeing a rover from a whole new perspective.
Shoemaker NEO Grant Winners Advance Their Work
We check in our last round of grant winners, who are helping to defend Earth from dangerous asteroids.
A Tiny Spacecraft Makes a Huge Leap with a Short Flight
Ingenuity flies on Mars and a NASA-SpaceX partnership paves the way for humans to get there too.
A galaxy that spins in more ways than one
Listen to the sounds of the Whirlpool Galaxy and look back at our earliest picture of it.
The great conjunction! (And how it functions)
Everything you need to know about Saturn and Jupiter’s upcoming conjunction, and more from this week in space exploration.
NASA Abruptly Delays a Critical Planetary Defense Mission
A space telescope that would find thousands of potential "city-killer" size asteroids was abruptly delayed due to unspecified and unrelated funding issues within NASA's science division.
Wish upon a shooting star (or a descending asteroid sample)
Hayabusa2 brings its sample safely to Earth, and the Geminids meteor shower approaches.
Planetary Society Reacts to Loss of Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope
Arecibo helped us explore the cosmos and our solar system, search for life, and defend Earth from potentially dangerous asteroids.
Planetary Society Grant Winner Discovers Large Near-Earth Asteroid
The kilometer-wide object won't hit Earth, but would cause global-scale devastation if it did.
A devil on Mars and defenders of Earth
From dust devils and craters on the Martian surface to spots on the Sun, we’re taking a look at everything new and exciting in space science and exploration this week.
Looking up at bright planets, asteroids, and burning trash
Get an update on the latest in space exploration, and find out how you can help defend the Earth from asteroid impacts.
How the European Space Agency Does Planetary Defense
Defending the planet from the hazard of potential asteroid impacts requires investments from the whole world. In Europe, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union both support work to understand and mitigate the threats from near-Earth objects.
How NASA's Planetary Defense Budget Grew By More Than 4000% in 10 years
NASA used to spend more on travel for its employees at headquarters than it did on finding dangerous near-Earth asteroids. Now it’s building asteroid-hunting space telescopes. What changed?
NASA to Build New Asteroid-Hunting Space Telescope
The yet-to-be-named telescope would launch as soon as 2024, as part of NASA's new, multi-pronged approach to planetary defense.
The September Equinox 2019 Issue of The Planetary Report Is Out!
A new issue of The Planetary Report brings you our pride in the success of LightSail 2 and our gratitude to our members for making it happen. Plus Venus science from Akatsuki and Venus Express, and the status of planetary defense.
The State of Planetary Defense
Vishnu Reddy delivers a sober but hopeful report on our understanding of near-Earth objects, their dangers, and our readiness.
Flying By Home
Vicky Hamilton explores how OSIRIS-REx used its Earth flyby to test instruments on the way to asteroid Bennu.
Asteroids have been hitting the Earth for billions of years. In 2022, we hit back.
DART is a test of the kinetic impactor technique, a potential method to deflect an asteroid on course to impact the Earth.