Short and thankful

Space Snapshot

The Planetary Society’s team is taking some time off this week to celebrate Thanksgiving, so this Downlink is a little shorter than usual. It’s also focused on gratitude — for the amazing things that happened in space exploration this year, the accomplishments our members and supporters helped make possible, and the people in our lives that we get to share it all with.

Here’s what we’re especially grateful for right now:

• The Best of 2025. There’s a lot to celebrate from the last year of space exploration, and you can still vote for your favorites up until Nov. 31. Among the highlights are the stunning images you see above — which one stands out to you? Cast your vote now!
• Advocacy impact. The Planetary Society and our members have been working hard year-round to fight for NASA Science, and we are seeing results. This week, a group of 30 House lawmakers submitted a letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Committee leadership with a simple message: protect federal funding for space science in FY 2026. Learn more about this action and what it means for NASA.
• The people who love space. Without those people, we would never send missions to explore the Cosmos, we’d never make discoveries about our place in space, and we’d certainly never succeed at defending budget cuts to NASA. We are thankful every day for the people who make space exploration possible — including you. That’s why we put together our annual space gift guide — to share awesome ideas for ways to celebrate the people in your life who love space and to nourish that passion even more. Check out our list of space gifts today.

What's Up

We’re always grateful for planets in the night sky, and this week we’ve got plenty. Look for very bright Jupiter rising in the east in the mid-evening, dominating the eastern sky. It is more than twice as bright as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Yellowish Saturn is also high up in the early evening west. If you have a clear view to the eastern horizon, you can see Mercury low to the horizon in the pre-dawn. Find out what to look forward to in December’s night skies.

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