Articles

Kate Howells

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft launched today aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Casey Dreier

Europa Clipper will soon head for Jupiter's icy, potentially habitable moon. Without the advocacy efforts of The Planetary Society and our members, the mission may never have been possible.

Asa Stahl

For a mission that doesn’t aim to find alien life, Europa Clipper may come surprisingly close.

Kate Howells

NASA is preparing to launch its flagship mission to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. Launching sometime in October 2024 and arriving in 2030, the mission will explore the icy world with a subsurface ocean that scientists think could have conditions favorable to life.

Kate Howells

Looking at life on Earth from another perspective.

Jonathan O’Callaghan

The gas giant is the Solar System's largest planet. Here's why it's also the fastest-spinning planet.

Casey Dreier

A critical part of a balanced exploration program, competed missions are scientist-led projects that cost less and occur more frequently than large, flagship-class missions.

Jason Davis

A total solar eclipse and the launch of Europa Clipper are on our list of cosmic events to get excited about this year.

Jason Davis

Cameras on our space probes act as proxies for our own eyes, but what they see isn't necessarily what our eyes would see.

Kate Howells

There aren't many close-up, high-resolution images of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. The reason comes down to distance.

Kate Howells

SETI is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, using various techniques to look for signals from advanced alien civilizations. METI (messaging extraterrestrial intelligence) is when we send out our own signals for aliens to find.

The Downlink

The real science of aliens, the policy implications of ET, and new views of worlds beyond our own.

The Downlink

We’re always learning more about the worlds of the outer Solar System, and even those beyond.

The Downlink

Whether they’re dedicated to it or not, planetary missions can get beautiful and informative glimpses at distant moons. And who’s the evil twin: Venus or Earth?

The Downlink

The Soyuz spacecraft have been helping humans get to and from space for decades, but that’s nothing compared to the billions of years that microorganisms have been making life on Earth possible.

The Downlink

The Moon casts shadows on itself and on Earth, environmental concerns overshadow a test launch’s success, and exoplanets are awesome (beyond a shadow of a doubt).

The Downlink

Flying on Titan is easy, but not as easy as flying on Deimos. Plus, Juice takes off and Ingenuity captures a view from the air.

The Downlink

Meet the Solar System’s five official dwarf planets, celebrate two major launches, and find out why planets sometimes seem to go backwards across the sky.

The Downlink

Detailed Mars maps, insights into the Venusian surface, and views of Uranian rings all have one thing in common: they don’t happen without public support for space.

Jason Davis

The spacecraft will explore Jupiter's moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, all three of which may harbor subsurface oceans.