Articles

Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.

Twister, but make it magnetic

A Jovian storm has its roots in a magnetic vortex, life finds a way into an asteroid sample, and more this week in space.

Gazing off into space

Turn your gaze to the heavens and you’ll find planets, stars, galaxies, and perhaps a new passion.

Ripples and rivers

Liquids do all kinds of interesting things on planetary surfaces, from creating rippled impact craters to streaming out from under carbon dioxide glaciers.

Streaks and highlights

It’s been a great year for space exploration. Now you get to pick the highlights.

Journeys worth making

Perseverance faces a hard climb, but New Horizons proves it’s worth going the distance.

Grand designs

From logos to policy to mission architectures, if you want to achieve something in space, you’ve got to design it first.

Solar maximum = maximum awe

With the Sun at the peak of its activity cycle, we Earthlings get treated to some awesome sights. Plus, some truly awe-inspiring launches happened this week.

Twinsies!

Asteroids that come in pairs, matching volcanic features on Mars and Earth, and the potential space policies of two administrations.

Glitter and glow

This week we look forward to launches, gaze at glowing auroras, and get creative with glitter.

Cloudy skies, smooth sailing

A Martian cloud atlas, LightSail wins big, and multiple missions coast toward launch.

Spacecraft, what do your robot eyes see?

Cameras on spacecraft are our eyes into the Cosmos. Sometimes they teach us things, sometimes they reveal gaps in our knowledge.

Someone’s aliens

Life thrives on Earth, and we even send evidence of our presence out into the Solar System. Is anyone out there looking for us?

Inside, underneath, backward, upside-down

From holes on Mars to a spun-around moon and a flipped reflection, space science involves looking at things from all different angles.

Super-size it

Europa Clipper is a big spacecraft with big solar panels, all so it can perform a big mission. The galaxy is big too, and a Planetary Society member painted it that way.

Wow! Boom! Ultra cool!

The “Wow!" signal has a new explanation, and an ultra-cool experiment advances quantum sensing in space. Plus, making an asteroid go “boom!” might work, depending on the circumstances.