Newborns and old-timers

Space Snapshot

We tend to call Mars the red planet, but this recent image from ESA’s Mars Express orbiter reveals a world of coral pink and pearly white. This is the Thyles Rupes region of Mars, with dramatic cliff faces near the planet’s south pole. You can see a blue-white glacier in the lower left, a large crater with ice at the center of the image, patches of frost-covered dunes in the lower right, and dark volcanic material at the far right. A combination of soft morning light and Martian dust helped accentuate the colors you see here. Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin.

Fact Worth Sharing

As the seasons on Mars progress, some of the ice at the planet’s south pole turns to gas and erupts from the surface in a similar fashion to geysers. A hopper mission to explore these geysers was once proposed to NASA, but did not become a reality.

Mission Briefings

Astronomers found signs of the youngest exoplanet ever. Called Elias 2-24 b, the world, if confirmed, orbits within a gap in a disk of gas and dust around its host star. The planet would be approximately one million years old and roughly as massive as Jupiter. If the Sun were the equivalent of a middle-aged adult, this infant world would be just three days old. Image credit: W. M. Keck Observatory / Adam Makarenko.

NASA may break its promise to contribute to a European mission to Venus. The Envision spacecraft, which could launch as soon as 2031 to orbit Venus, was originally planned five years ago in partnership with NASA. Now, Anne Grete Straume, Envision’s project scientist, says that NASA is unlikely to come through with a key instrument for the mission.

The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope may have just doubled its lifetime. NASA’s latest flagship observatory, which launched on Aug. 30, may arrive at its final orbit with enough fuel to operate for a full 22 years — far more than earlier hopes of a five-year primary mission and a possible five-year extension after that. The bonus comes from the spacecraft being lighter than originally planned, as well as an extremely precise launch and engine burn.

Most of the Artemis II crew have hung up their spacesuits. The mission’s commander and pilot, Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, each recently announced their retirement as astronauts. Both will continue to help mentor NASA workers as emeritus astronauts. Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen also retired from the Canadian Space Agency in July. Of the Artemis II crew, Christina Koch is now the only active astronaut.

From The Planetary Society

Help keep New Horizons exploring. Due to budget pressures, NASA may soon turn off two instruments aboard the New Horizons spacecraft as it continues exploring the Kuiper Belt. Planetary scientist Kirby Runyon explains the scientific cost of partially disabling this active mission, and encourages readers to sign this petition to keep New Horizons making discoveries. Pictured: An artist’s impression of New Horizons with Pluto and Charon. Image credit: NASA/JHUAPL.

Star Trek meets The Planetary Society, part two. On this week’s Planetary Radio, join host Sarah Al-Ahmed as she speaks with Star Trek actors Tim Russ (Tuvok) and Darim Diané (Jay-Den Kraag) about survival in deep space, amateur astronomy, and their own relationships with their science-fiction roles.

Power the next great discovery today. Your support today can fund studies of what Mars was like in the past. Our STEP Grant to Dr. Buffo and his team is helping them develop techniques to better study hypersaline lakes that mirror past conditions on Mars, efforts that could help future spacecraft more efficiently spot promising places to look for signs of past life. Make your gift!

Want to win a total solar eclipse trip to Egypt?

Now through Sept. 22, you'll receive 650 extra entries (a $500 value) toward a trip for two on an astronomer-led eclipse expedition through Egypt when you enter this sweepstakes. Submit your entry by September 22 with code BONUS25 for your chance at 650 extra entries! (Image shown is a simulation.)

What's Up

In the evening skies this week, look for stunningly bright Venus in the west, with yellowish Saturn rising in the east after sunset and crossing the sky over the course of the night. In the pre-dawn, very bright, white Jupiter dominates the eastern sky, with reddish Mars higher up. Learn more about what to look for in our guide to September’s night skies.

Join now and save space missions

If you are not one already, become a member TODAY and help shape the future of space science and exploration by fueling mission-critical advocacy efforts. Here’s just one example: The Planetary Society led efforts in Washington to Save NASA Science in 2026. Thanks to the support of our members, we were able to prevent an extinction-level budget cut to planetary exploration this year. This means more missions, more science, and exploration in our Solar System.

Will you join us and protect the future of exploration?

Wow of the Week

This image from the James Webb Space Telescope captures a star-forming region in the near-infrared. The observations shown here were used to identify the least massive brown dwarfs known to date: worlds that are seemingly not quite stars and not quite planets, with roughly twice Jupiter's mass. Image credit: ESA et al.

Send us your artwork!

We love to feature space artwork in the Downlink. If you create any kind of space-related art, we invite you to send it to us by replying to any Downlink email or writing to [email protected]. Please let us know in your email if you’re a Planetary Society member!