Articles

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

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.

Mars' growth stunted!

Mars is a weirdo. (Well, as far as planets go).

So you need questions answered about space

A post for kids whose teachers have told them to send emails to scientists asking questions.

Visiting northern Thailand? Be a Stopover Astronomer guest at Thailand’s national astronomy institute

If you are space professional traveling to Thailand, the country's national space science research institute has an opportunity for you!

Funpost! Space beer face-off

Please Funpost! responsibly.

How long is a day on Saturn?

One of the Cassini mission's goals was to figure out how long a day on Saturn is. We still don't know. A new paper reports a measurement of the rotation period of Saturn that is different from past measurements.