Articles

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

Eclipses: It’s All About Perspective

Look at eclipses from the perspective of Earth, the Moon, and beyond. Plus catch up on the week’s space news.

Solar Plasma and Europan Magma

From solar storms to underwater volcanoes and asteroid close calls, catch up on what’s scary and beautiful this week in space.

A Super Blood Moon Is Nicer Than It Sounds

Find out what a super blood Moon is, and celebrate a milestone in Mars exploration.

Why is SpaceX Sending a Dogecoin Mission to the Moon?

Elon Musk and SpaceX are sending a spacecraft to the Moon that has been paid entirely in Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency based on a meme.

Moon, Mars and a Meteor Shower

Remembering a space pioneer and seeing a rover from a whole new perspective.

Your guide to future total solar eclipses

Bruce Betts and Sarah Al-Ahmed provided a guide to all total solar eclipses through the end of the 2020s, with dates and locations.

A moon mountain and a radio retrospective

Say hello to a new lunar sample return mission and farewell to a long-lived radio observatory. Plus, celebrate 18 years of Planetary Radio.

Moon Features You Can See From Earth

What can you see on the Moon tonight? This guide from The Planetary Society will help you identify some features.

Your Guide to Water on the Moon

Learn when we discovered lunar water, where it is, and how future missions will study it.

NASA and JAXA to Send Planetary Society-supported Sample Technology to the Moon and Phobos

PlanetVac, developed by Honeybee Robotics, is designed to be a reliable, flexible, low-cost sample collection technology.

We’re over the Moon for… well, for the Moon!

Everything you need to celebrate the Moon this week, plus a way you can help NASA thrive in 2021.

Can the Moon be upside down?

When you think about how the Moon looks in the night sky, you might never have considered that it looks different to people in other parts of the world. But really, perspective is all relative.

What’s up (and down) in space?

Wrap your head around orientations in space, and learn the latest in space exploration news.

A comet visitor and a pretty metal Moon

The week’s space news, plus your guide to the night sky and ways you can contribute to Venus science.

Asteroid Bennu during OSIRIS-REx sample rehearsal

It's a banner year for sample return missions. In 2020, China, Japan, and the United States are all scheduled to have sample return missions in flight, seeking to retrieve material from near-Earth asteroids, the Moon, and eventually Mars.

The Next 10 Years

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.