Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

Some of the biggest discoveries we make in planetary science rely on the seemingly simple act of picking up and analyzing pieces of other worlds. When things go awry, scientists and engineers can sometimes squeeze amazing science out of a tough situation.

Jason Davis

The Austrian Space Forum is leading a four-week Mars mission in Oman's Dhofar Desert.

Emily Lakdawalla

NASA has announced changes to how engineers are operating Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in order to prolong its life as long as possible, long enough to support the Mars 2020 rover mission.

Jason Davis

The White House's budget proposes $19.9 billion for NASA.

Casey Dreier

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy is not just for big payloads, it can also throw light things into space very fast. And that has significant implications for the exploration of distant destinations in our outer solar system—particularly the ocean moons of the giant planets.

Emily Lakdawalla

Bad presentation often gets in the way of good science. Emily Lakdawalla offers her advice on how to present your scientific work effectively.

Jason Davis

SpaceX is now the proud owner of the world's most powerful operational rocket.

Casey Dreier

I'm excited to share with you a major step forward for the support of space exploration in the U.S. Congress: the formation of a new caucus devoted to planetary science and exploration.

Jason Davis

Hop in, it'll be eternity 'till we make it to M83.

Jason Davis

We're now less than a day away from SpaceX's Falcon Heavy test flight! Here's a recap of today's news.

Bill Nye

Before the State of the Union address, Bill Nye and Planetary Society staff met with sixteen sitting members of Congress. At each meeting they had the opportunity to talk about the importance of space exploration and scientific research.

Jason Davis

Possible outcomes of next week's test include an explosion or a car launched into orbit around the Sun.

A.J.S. Rayl

In January, Opportunity quietly completed 14 years of surface operations on Mars—the longest-lived robot on another planet.

Casey Dreier

Last week, The Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye accepted an invitation by NASA Administrator nominee Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) to join him as his guest at the State of the Union address. We anticipated this would be a controversial decision, and we were right.

Jim Bell

Just this past week, assembly of the Mastcam-Z EQM was completed, and we saw for the first time what one of our Mars zoom cameras would really look like.

Tom Dahl

Viking enthusiast Tom Dahl has created an animation demonstrating the operation of the Viking lander's Surface Sampler Acquisition Assembly, or

Emily Lakdawalla

In a new preprint, Mike Brown and Bryan Butler show evidence that two Kuiper belt moons are even bigger than we used to think. They are Eris' moon Dysnomia, and Orcus' moon Vanth.

James D. Burke

Interest is rising globally in expanded lunar science, resource exploration and eventually permanent human settlement. Also, the potential for commercial lunar enterprises is being seriously examined.

Jason Davis

Early Earth's atmosphere wasn't a place for humans. Yet the planet had microbial life—something we should keep in mind for exoplanets.

Emily Lakdawalla

Throughout 2018, New Horizons will cruise toward its January 1 encounter with 2014 MU69. Preparations for the flyby are nearly complete.