Planetary Radio • Dec 31, 2025

Looking back: Space exploration in 2025

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On This Episode

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Kate Howells

Public Education Specialist for The Planetary Society

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Mat Kaplan

Senior Communications Adviser and former Host of Planetary Radio for The Planetary Society

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Asa Stahl

Science Editor for The Planetary Society

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Ambre Trujillo

Digital Community Manager for The Planetary Society

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Bruce Betts

Chief Scientist / LightSail Program Manager for The Planetary Society

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Sarah Al-Ahmed

Planetary Radio Host and Producer for The Planetary Society

As 2025 comes to a close, Planetary Radio looks back on a year that reshaped space exploration, through stunning discoveries, major milestones, unexpected challenges, and the people who carried science forward through it all.

In this episode, Sarah Al-Ahmed, host and producer of Planetary Radio, is joined first by Kate Howells, public education specialist at The Planetary Society, to share results from The Planetary Society’s Best of 2025 campaign and the newly released 2025 Year in Pictures edition of The Planetary Report. They discuss the images, missions, and accomplishments voted on by the global space community, and how space imagery continues to inspire curiosity, connection, and hope. 

Then, Sarah sits down with Mat Kaplan, senior communications advisor, Asa Stahl, science editor, and Ambre Trujillo, digital community manager at The Planetary Society for a wide-ranging conversation about the defining space exploration stories of 2025.

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PlanetVac operates on the Moon Honeybee Robotic's Lunar PlanetVac instrument successfully collects a sample of regolith from the Moon's surface. Lunar PlanetVac touched down as part of Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 on March 2, 2025.Video: Firefly Aerospace

Virgo cluster from Rubin
Virgo cluster from Rubin The Virgo galaxy cluster, shown here in a tiny fraction of a much larger composite image taken by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory.Image: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
Sprite from ISS
Sprite from ISS A sprite, which is a brief light event triggered by electrical activity, photographed by NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers aboard the International Space Station (ISS).Image: Nichole Ayers, NASA
Fired from NASA
Fired from NASA Mamta Patel Nagaraja outside NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., shortly after being informed her position at NASA was being abolished.Image: Mamta Patel Nagaraja
Lunar sunrise from Blue Ghost
Lunar sunrise from Blue Ghost This image captured by Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander on March 3 shows sunrise on the lunar surface.Image: Firefly Aerospace
Planetvac on the Moon
Planetvac on the Moon Lunar PlanetVac, deployed on the Moon as part of Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander.Image: Firefly Aerospace, Inc
Coronal rain
Coronal rain In May 2025, researchers using the Goode Solar Telescope in California shared the highest resolution images ever made of the boundary between the surface of the Sun and its corona. Images like this one show coronal rain, a phenomenon that occurs when hotter plasma in the corona cools down, becomes denser, and falls back to the surface along magnetic field lines.Image: Schmidt et al./NJIT/NSO/AURA/NSF
Earth from Tianwen 2
Earth from Tianwen 2 Earth as seen from CNSA's Tianwen 2 spacecraft.Image: CNSA
3I/ATLAS from Hubble
3I/ATLAS from Hubble Comet 3I/ATLAS as seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.Image: NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA), J. DePasquale (STScI)

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