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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Someone’s aliens
Life thrives on Earth, and we even send evidence of our presence out into the Solar System. Is anyone out there looking for us?
New insights into asteroid properties: A STEP Grant update
A Planetary Society-funded project to understand asteroids achieved its main goals and scientific objectives this year.
Connecting ancient life to other worlds
Looking to the past to guide the search for life.
Earthlings as aliens
Looking at life on Earth from another perspective.
Your impact: September equinox 2024
Exploring Europa and defending Earth.
Extraterrestrial artifacts
Could the Solar System host traces of other intelligent life?
Inside, underneath, backward, upside-down
From holes on Mars to a spun-around moon and a flipped reflection, space science involves looking at things from all different angles.
The Tianlin Space Telescope
China is in the early stages of planning a huge space observatory to help answer the matter of whether we are alone in the galaxy.
Why the “habitable zone” doesn’t always mean habitable
The habitable zone is a useful concept in astrobiology, but it can sometimes paint an over-simplified picture of planetary habitability.
Super-size it
Europa Clipper is a big spacecraft with big solar panels, all so it can perform a big mission. The galaxy is big too, and a Planetary Society member painted it that way.
Wow! Boom! Ultra cool!
The “Wow!" signal has a new explanation, and an ultra-cool experiment advances quantum sensing in space. Plus, making an asteroid go “boom!” might work, depending on the circumstances.
Ramses: A new mission racing to land on asteroid Apophis
When a skyscraper-sized asteroid narrowly misses Earth in 2029, three spacecraft may be along for the ride.
A billion dollars short: A progress report on the Planetary Decadal Survey
NASA is underfunding planetary exploration relative to recommendations made by the National Academies Decadal Survey report, resulting in mission delays and cancelations.
What would happen if we nuked an asteroid?
Detonating a nuclear weapon on or near an asteroid is one of several options for defending the Earth from an impact. Here's what nuking an asteroid might actually do, and why it isn't always the best option.
Life in other worlds
New research suggests liquid water might be hiding under the surface of Mars. Could life be there too?
Why NASA does space science and not the private sector
With all the advances in private space exploration, why do taxpayers still pay for space science missions?
Mars may host oceans’ worth of water deep underground
The tentative discovery hints at an habitat where life could potentially thrive.
Seeing the unseeable
From X-ray imaging to slithering beneath Enceladus’ crust, space technology is always expanding what we can see for ourselves.
How EELS could change the future of robotic exploration
The snake-like robot is being designed to autonomously navigate the challenging terrain of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, including descending into fissures in the moon’s icy crust. The skills it needs in order to explore this distant, unfamiliar world may make EELS well equipped to explore even more alien worlds, perhaps including exoplanets.
Eureka? Scientists’ first hints of life on other planets may not be so obvious
Knowing that you've found signs of life beyond Earth may not be as clear-cut and simple as one might think.