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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
European Space Agency Announces Budgetary Commitments
ESA has committed to continuing its ExoMars programme and participation with the International Space Station, but cut funding for its Asteroid Impact Mission.
Spektr-RG sees (x-ray) light at the end of the tunnel
After many years of development, a cutting-edge Russian-German space observatory with little-known contribution from the US is finally approaching the launch pad...or so its scientists say.
Dynamics of Exoplanet Systems
At this year’s Division for Planetary Sciences/European Planetary Science Congress meeting, the Exoplanet Dynamics session was packed full of talks on tightly-packed multi-planet systems and their instabilities.
DPS/EPSC update: 2007 OR10 has a moon!
The third-largest object known beyond Neptune, 2007 OR10, has a moon. The discovery was reported in a poster by Gábor Marton, Csaba Kiss, and Thomas Mueller at the joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society (DPS/EPSC) on Monday.
Rapidly Rotating Regular Satellites and Tides
Pluto’s small moons have unusual rotation rates and states. Now we know a moon of another dwarf planet does as well. Is there a connection?
Gaia's first galaxy map
The astronomy world is abuzz today because of ESA's announcement of the first release of data from the Gaia mission. Gaia is a five-year mission that will eventually measure the positions and motions of billions of stars; this first data release includes positions for 1.1 billion of them, and proper motions for 2 million.
The Many Names of WFIRST
NASA’s next big “flagship” astronomy mission, following the ambitious James Webb Space Telescope due to be launched in 2018, is currently known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST)—but it's had a slew of different names.
Hubble Series 1: How to Find Hubble Data
Processing Hubble data presents a host of challenges, and the first of these has nothing to do with processing at all.
WISE Views in Infrared
Amateur image processor Judy Schmidt explains the process of creating gorgeous views of the cosmos from infrared data from the WISE telescope.
A Moon for Makemake
The solar system beyond Neptune is full of worlds hosting moons. Now we know that the dwarf planet Makemake has one of its very own.
How Does a NASA Scientist End Up Working on an ESA Mission?
Cosmologist Jason Rhodes details the path he took to play a leading role in a European mission designed to learn about dark energy.
Jupiter Weather Report: 2014/15 Apparition
A summary of Jupiter's changing face as seen from Earth during its 2014/2015 apparition.
A moon with atmosphere
What is the solar system moon with the densest atmosphere? Most space fans know that the answer is Titan. A few of you might know that Triton's is the next densest. But what's the third? Fourth? Do any other moons even have atmospheres? In fact, they do; and one such atmosphere has just been discovered.
An internal ocean on Ganymede: Hooray for consistency with previous results!
A newly published paper confirms a subsurface ocean at Ganymede. An ocean there was already suspected from its magnetic field and predicted by geophysics; new Hubble data confirms it, and even says it is in the same place we thought it was before. Such consistency is rare enough in planetary science to be worth celebration.
Some Recent Views of Mars from Hubble
Ted Stryk showcases some of his processed versions of recent Hubble Space Telescope views of Mars.
Mars Orbiter Mission delivers on promise of global views of Mars
Ever since I first learned about the capabilities of Mars Orbiter Mission's small payload of science instruments, I have been anticipating one type of data in particular: global color views of Mars captured in a single 2000-pixel-square frame. Just days after entering orbit, Mars Orbiter Mission has delivered on that promise.
Three Major Volcanic Eruptions Observed On Io in the Span of Two Weeks
Jason Perry brings us a report on recent ground-based observations that shed new light on the most powerful of Io’s volcanic eruptions.
Hubble to the rescue! The last-ditch effort to discover a Kuiper belt target for New Horizons
Will New Horizons have a mission after Pluto? Ground-based searches have failed to turn up anything that New Horizons can reach. Now Hubble is joining the search, but time is running out: a discovery must be made within the next two months.
A GRB in M31...or not
The Twittersphere has been alive with speculation about a Gamma Ray Burst in the nearby galaxy M31. The problem is, there was never a claim of such an event, and it turns out that the tentative result that triggered this story was overstated.
Comet Siding Spring Mars encounter: Cosmic bully spotted by ESA and NASA
Hubble has taken some great new images of our 'friend,' Comet Siding Spring, due to pass by Mars at less than 136,000 km on October 19 – less than half the distance between Earth and our moon.