Articles

Jason Davis

Possible outcomes of next week's test include an explosion or a car launched into orbit around the Sun.

A.J.S. Rayl

In January, Opportunity quietly completed 14 years of surface operations on Mars—the longest-lived robot on another planet.

Casey Dreier

Last week, The Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye accepted an invitation by NASA Administrator nominee Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) to join him as his guest at the State of the Union address. We anticipated this would be a controversial decision, and we were right.

Jim Bell

Just this past week, assembly of the Mastcam-Z EQM was completed, and we saw for the first time what one of our Mars zoom cameras would really look like.

Tom Dahl

Viking enthusiast Tom Dahl has created an animation demonstrating the operation of the Viking lander's Surface Sampler Acquisition Assembly, or

Emily Lakdawalla

In a new preprint, Mike Brown and Bryan Butler show evidence that two Kuiper belt moons are even bigger than we used to think. They are Eris' moon Dysnomia, and Orcus' moon Vanth.

James D. Burke

Interest is rising globally in expanded lunar science, resource exploration and eventually permanent human settlement. Also, the potential for commercial lunar enterprises is being seriously examined.

Jason Davis

Early Earth's atmosphere wasn't a place for humans. Yet the planet had microbial life—something we should keep in mind for exoplanets.

Emily Lakdawalla

Throughout 2018, New Horizons will cruise toward its January 1 encounter with 2014 MU69. Preparations for the flyby are nearly complete.

Jason Davis

The International Space Station stays open for business; everything else is at least somewhat affected.

Casey Dreier

As a service to our members and to promote transparency, The Planetary Society's Space Policy and Advocacy team publishes quarterly reports on their activities, actions, priorities, and goals in service of their efforts to promote space science and exploration in Washington, D.C.

Casey Dreier

When a congressman and current nominee for NASA Administrator asks you to be his guest at the state of the union address in Washington, D.C., how do you respond? For us, the answer was easy. Yes, Bill would be there.

Marc Rayman

Permanently in residence at dwarf planet Ceres, Dawn is now preparing to add some finishing touches to its mission.

Jason Davis

SpaceX and Boeing might not be certified to carry astronauts to the International Space Station until 2019 or 2020.

Damia Bouic

Amateur image processor Damia Bouic shares a plethora of stunning new images of Venus captured by a Japanese spacecraft.

Emily Lakdawalla

The latest and greatest update of Emily's list of all the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE images that contain Curiosity hardware, tracks, or traverses.

Jason Davis

Europa doesn't have grandiose plumes like Enceladus. So how will the Clipper mission figure out what's in Europa's ocean?

Emily Lakdawalla

Curiosity is climbing across the top of Vera Rubin Ridge, spying varicolored rocks. It's getting closer to being ready to drill again, and has performed a wet chemistry experiment for the first time.

Donna Stevens

The Winter 2017/2018 issue of The Planetary Report is arriving in Planetary Society members’ mailboxes—but members who like to read their magazine on the screen can pick it up online.

A.J.S. Rayl

With the Martian winter on the run, Opportunity cruised closer to its 14th anniversary of exploring the Red Planet in December as she deliberated a distinctive “fork in the road” deep in Perseverance Valley and wrapped another record year.