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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Space grade electronics: How NASA’s Juno survives near Jupiter
Take a look at how electronics of spacecraft are built to survive the harshness of space environments.
Diving into Juno JIRAM data archives
The Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument can obtain images in two infrared bands. JIRAM can see the nightside of Jupiter (including the winter pole) and takes spectacular animations.
#MoonMon: Io's pretty plumes
On this Moon Monday, I'm featuring an animation processed by Gordan Ugarkovic, showing Jupiter's volcanic moon Io with its prominent plumes.
#LPSC2018: Titan Is Terrific!
Emily's first report from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference is on the solar system's most atmospheriffic satellite, Saturn's moon Titan.
Moon Monday: Tethys from Voyager
To start the week, Voyager 2's best image of Tethys.
Sketching a science meeting
The Planetary Society has always enjoyed the connections between science and art, so when I saw Leila Qışın's sketches pop up on her Twitter feed during the recent New Horizons team meeting, I knew I had to share them with you.
New Horizons prepares for encounter with 2014 MU69
Throughout 2018, New Horizons will cruise toward its January 1 encounter with 2014 MU69. Preparations for the flyby are nearly complete.
No plumes? No problem. How Europa Clipper will analyze an icy moon's ocean
Europa doesn't have grandiose plumes like Enceladus. So how will the Clipper mission figure out what's in Europa's ocean?
#AGU17: Spherical harmonics, gravity, and the depth of winds at Jupiter
Results from the Juno gravity science experiment presented at last week's American Geophysical Union meeting suggest Jupiter's winds penetrate only to 3000 kilometers deep.
#AGU17: JunoCam science
JunoCam may be an outreach instrument, but its superb photos of storms on Jupiter are providing plenty of data for scientists to talk about.
Brief note from #AGU17: Juno observes volcanism on Io
At the American Geophysical Union meeting, members of the Juno team showed observations of active volcanism on Jupiter's moon Io.
Clipper Slipper
Will NASA's Space Launch System be ready to launch a Europa mission in 2022?
Cassini’s Last Dance With Saturn: The Farewell Mosaic
Amateur image processor Ian Regan shares the story of processing Cassini's final images of the ringed planet.
Fall 2017 issue of The Planetary Report now available
The Fall 2017 issue of The Planetary Report is in the mail and available online now to our members!
Cassini: The dying of the light
Cassini is no more. At 10:31 according to its own clock, its thrusters could no longer hold its radio antenna pointed at Earth, and it turned away. A minute later, it vaporized in Saturn’s atmosphere. Its atoms are part of Saturn now.
What to expect during Cassini's final hours
A timeline of what to expect from the great mission during its final hours.
And then there was one
The end of the Cassini mission is a harbinger for a looming gap in outer planets exploration missions.
Voyager 40th Anniversary: Summer of '79
Planetary scientist Paul Schenk shares his story of working on the Voyager missions as a JPL intern back in 1979.
Voyager 40th anniversary: Reflecting on the pale blue dot
Today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1. Four decades later, both spacecraft survive, still producing science, still working on their interstellar missions. On the occasion of the anniversary, we revisit Carl Sagan's reflections on the significance of the Voyager missions.
Voyager 40th anniversary: Revisiting the Voyagers' planetary views
Björn Jónsson argues that even now, 40 years after Voyager 1 and 2 were launched, a lot of the data they returned is still of high interest.