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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
The best seat in the solar system
Look at some extraordinary views from space and imagine what you’d see if you had the best seat on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.
LightSail 2 Sails On!
The Planetary Society’s crowdfunded LightSail 2 spacecraft is going strong and still making history.
How Dragonfly will explore Saturn’s ‘bizarro Earth’ moon, Titan
NASA's Dragonfly dual-quadcopter will carry a suite of instruments designed to analyze the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan.
Atmospheres that intrigue, protect, and obscure
Catch up on the week’s space news and consider planetary atmospheres from a few thought-provoking perspectives.
NASA Greenlights Dragonfly, a Quadcopter Mission to Titan
Sporting 8 rotors and a nuclear power source like the Mars Curiosity rover, Dragonfly will launch in 2026 and arrive at Titan in 2034.
My 18-Month Affair With Titan
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.
A Comet or Titan: The Next New Frontiers Mission
Both would do compelling science in the mid-2030s. Otherwise the two missions could not be more different.
#LPSC2018: Titan Is Terrific!
Emily's first report from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference is on the solar system's most atmospheriffic satellite, Saturn's moon Titan.
How the Falcon Heavy could revolutionize exploration of the ocean worlds
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy is not just for big payloads, it can also throw light things into space very fast. And that has significant implications for the exploration of distant destinations in our outer solar system—particularly the ocean moons of the giant planets.
Explore spinnable Saturn and Jupiter moons with Google Maps
Google Maps released several new map products that allow you to see the locations of named features on many solar system planets and non-planets, spinning them around in space with your mouse.
Radar in Earth and Planetary Science, Part 2
Heather Hunter brings us the next installment in her series on radio detection and ranging.
Radar in Earth and Planetary Science: An Intro
Heather Hunter explains how radar works and what it's used for on Earth and beyond.
Explorer of Enceladus and Titan
For the third time in less than a decade, scientists have proposed a multiple-flyby mission to explore the habitability of Saturn’s ocean moons Titan and Enceladus.
Cassini's camera views of Titan's polar lakes in summer, processed into pseudocolor
Titan's north polar lakes are well-lit by summer sun in these recent Cassini images. Image processing enthusiast Ian Regan shares his recipe for processing the longer-wavelength Titan images into visually pleasing
The what-o-sphere? An explainer
Why do we need to slice up atmospheres into classifications like the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere?
Atmospheric Waves Awareness: An Explainer
There are two types of atmospheric waves that are critically important on Earth and other planets: gravity waves and planetary waves.
Fog Detection from the Surface of Titan: New Findings From Old Data
Huygens may have landed on Titan over a decade ago, but a group of researchers from York University were able to make a new and unexpected discovery with this older dataset.
Clouds and haze and dust, oh my!
What types of aerosols do we find in the atmospheres around the Solar System, and why does what we call them—clouds vs. haze vs. dust—matter? Sarah Hörst explains.
Pretty pictures: Cassini views of Titan's poles (with bonus Enceladus)
Image processing enthusiast Ian Regan produced a pretty view of Titan's lake-filled north pole, now visible to Cassini's cameras in the summer sun.
Pretty pictures: Bittersweet goodies from Cassini at Titan, Enceladus, and Telesto
Tomorrow, Cassini will fly by Titan, picking up a gravity assist that will tilt its orbit slightly up and out of the ring plane. That will end what has been a wonderful year of frequent encounters with Saturnian moons.