Articles

The Planetary Society

Six scientists share the major planetary science discoveries of the past decade, and the questions that will drive the next 10 years of solar system exploration.

The Planetary Society

The leader of the Cassini spacecraft imaging team discusses pale blue dots, life on Enceladus, terraforming Mars, Pluto, Carl Sagan, and more.

Carl Sagan

Long before the Cassini-Hugygens spacecraft launched in 1997 to explore Saturn and Titan, The Planetary Society urged NASA to make the mission a reality.

Ian Regan

Ian Regan, producer of the Titan segment of In Saturn's Rings, describes the meticulous process of creating the stunning visuals of this shrouded moon.

Emily Lakdawalla

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.

Björn Jónsson

The Juno spacecraft that is currently orbiting Jupiter has obtained the first good images of Jupiter's polar regions. I am presenting here a combined global map of Jupiter, made from a Cassini map I made for the equatorial and temperate regions and polar maps made from the Juno JunoCam and JIRAM polar images.

Emily Lakdawalla

Happy Monday! Here's a picture of Prometheus. You may think it's a picture of Saturn. Look hard, toward the bottom, and you'll see Prometheus, doing its part to keep the F ring in line.

Emily Lakdawalla

On this Moon Monday, I'm featuring an animation processed by Gordan Ugarkovic, showing Jupiter's volcanic moon Io with its prominent plumes.

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily's first report from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference is on the solar system's most atmospheriffic satellite, Saturn's moon Titan.

Ian Regan

Amateur image processor Ian Regan shares the story of processing Cassini's final images of the ringed planet.

Donna Stevens

The Fall 2017 issue of The Planetary Report is in the mail and available online now to our members!

Emily Lakdawalla

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.

Jason Davis

The end of the Cassini mission is a harbinger for a looming gap in outer planets exploration missions.

Emily Lakdawalla

A timeline of what to expect from the great mission during its final hours.

Emily Lakdawalla

Sadly, the Cassini mission ends soon. We're halfway through the

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily shares another of her popular size comparisons of solar system bodies, taking advantage of Cassini's recent views of Saturn's tiniest moons.

Ian Regan

Amateur image processor Ian Regan shares a stunning mosaic of Saturn in all its ringed glory.

Heather Hunter

Heather Hunter brings us the next installment in her series on radio detection and ranging.

Emily Lakdawalla

An unusual photo of Saturn by astrophotographer Damian Peach shows the planet and its largest moon nestled among the star-filled lane of the Milky Way.

Emily Lakdawalla

Cheers erupted in the Von Karman auditorium at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory early Thursday morning as a squiggly green line on a graph developed a crisp, tall peak, signifying that the Cassini spacecraft was calling home after surviving its first plunge between Saturn and its ring system.