Mind-blowing space volcanoes

Please be gentle with the “eggshell planets” outside our solar system. Researchers have uncovered a kind of exoplanet that may be useful in the search for Earth-like worlds. A new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets describes these so-called “eggshell planets” as having ultra-thin crusts and no plate tectonics. The team posits such worlds would be inhospitable to life. Pictured: An artist’s rendition of an eggshell exoplanet. Image credit: NASA.

NASA has officially pushed the timeline on getting astronauts back to the Moon. The agency announced this week that a 2024 lunar landing is not feasible; it’ll instead aim for 2025 at the earliest. NASA cited legal battles over the Human Landing System as part of the delay, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic among other reasons.

SpaceX’s Crew-2 Dragon put on quite the light show as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. Stargazers in the southern U.S. got a good look at the capsule streaking across the sky before it splashed down off the west coast of Florida. The four Crew-2 astronauts aboard returned safely back to land after spending nearly 200 days on the International Space Station. Four more astronauts in Crew-3 successfully launched on Wednesday.

Volcanoes have immense destructive and creative power. Throughout the solar system, they’re responsible for reworking the surfaces of planets and moons, which, on Earth, can mean trouble. But they can also teach us about what lies beneath a world’s exterior, and they’re undeniably spectacular. Our new collection of images of some of our solar system’s mighty volcanoes will make you glad you live on a relatively calm volcanic planet. Pictured: Plumes coming from geysers on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, imaged by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Gordan Ugarkovic.

A million books worth of data are transmitted between Earth and spacecraft every day. Badri Younes, leader of NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, oversees the whole process. Younes joins this week’s Planetary Radio to talk about how data transmission technologies are advancing as space gets busier, and how all this data is only really of value if it ends up teaching the public something new about space.

What’s it like to be tasked with defending the planet? Lindley Johnson joins this month’s Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition to talk about his role as NASA's planetary defense coordination officer. His office oversees the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, launching later this month. Johnson talks about how DART represents a new era for the agency's Planetary Defense program after nearly 25 years of convincing policymakers, international partners, and even NASA that asteroid detection and deflection is an important use of taxpayer dollars.

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