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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
What sci-fi dreams are made of
From a space station cemetery to a super-resilient spacecraft, the feats of human ingenuity that make space exploration possible are the stuff of science fiction dreams.
Who loves the Sun?
Our host star takes center stage, and JWST demands a little more patience.
NASA Solar Sails Build on LightSail 2
NEA Scout will visit a near-Earth asteroid and Solar Cruiser will test the largest solar sail yet.
Where We Are on 1 April 2019
Emily Lakdawalla takes us on a tour of the spacecraft currently exploring from within our solar system. All planets and spacecraft locations are shown at their location for April 1st, 2019.
Parker Solar Probe preview: 10 hot facts about NASA's cool mission to the Sun
This weekend, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft leaves Earth on a mission to touch the Sun.
Parker Solar Probe: NASA renames upcoming mission to touch the Sun
NASA's Parker Solar Probe spacecraft will repeatedly dive through the Sun's corona, giving scientists their first-ever up-close look at our star.
In Pictures: A Partial Solar Eclipse from Space
Two sun-observing spacecraft in Earth orbit captured images of a partial solar eclipse Sunday morning.
In Pictures: DSCOVR Headed for Deep Space
On Wednesday evening, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketed into orbit with DSCOVR, the Deep Space Climate Observatory. Here's a photo and video roundup.
Two Days, Two Launches and Three Landings
Within a two-day span, two rocket launches and three ocean landings are scheduled—one of which involves an autonomous spaceport drone ship.
A (Difficult) Day in the Solar System
After a bad day on the launch pad, some perspective.
The Pivotal Discovery You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
Karl Battams highlights the historic discovery, by an Air Force satellite, of a sungrazing comet.
Missions to a Star
Upcoming deep space missions will venture right to the heart of the Solar System.
The Mercury Transit You Probably Missed
Planetary transits of the Sun by Mercury and Venus don't come along very often, and when they do we make a big deal of it because, well, it's really cool!
Comet ISON live blog
Comet ISON reached perihelion at 18:25 UT (10:25 PT) on November 28. It's an event that's was watched around the world, accompanied by tons of commentary and streams of photos. We will update this blog entry periodically with links to all the resources that we hear of for following the comet's progress.
Comet ISON Wrap Up
Comet ISON captivated our world, and many of our world’s robotic emissaries for many months. But, alas, poor ISON is dead -- again. Here I wrap up our enthusiastic coverage of this multi-morphing zombie comet that tried to survive and re-survive as it came within one solar diameter of the Sun.
Comet ISON Hangouts November 25 and December 2
Two Hangouts bookended comet ISON's perihelion, hosted by Chuck Beuter of Comet Festival South Bend. On November 25, it was I and Ron Kaitchuck. On December 2, Alex Filippenko and I discussed what happened to the comet over Thanksgiving.
Multiple views of comet ISON from solar-observing spacecraft
When comet ISON passed through perihelion last week, solar observing spacecraft had a ringside view. Here are several animations of ISON's perilous passage from the SOHO and two STEREO spacecraft.
ISON, Encke, Mercury, and Home
Comet ISON has entered the field of view of the STEREO HI-1A camera, and, in an awesome animation, it joins a large cast of characters already present there.
IRIS safely in orbit, ready to eye sun's atmosphere
IRIS, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph spacecraft, was launched from Orbital Science Corporation's Stargazer carrier aircraft over the Pacific Ocean at 7:27 p.m PDT.
First Analysis: the NASA Planetary Science Budget for 2014
No mission to Europa, diminished funding for outer planets missions, a small bump to small spacecraft missions, and an increase for asteroid detection are part of the White House's proposal for NASA in 2014.