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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Back from the Brink: Akatsuki Returns to Venus
Perhaps forgotten by the general public in the West, a long-lost spacecraft is set to enter orbit around our sister planet in December, picking up where ESA’s Venus Express left off when its operations ended last year.
Detecting Dust Devils with Insight
Planetary scientist and dust devil expert Ralph Lorenz describes how the upcoming Mars InSight lander's sensitive seismometer might be able to detect dust devils.
A Roundup of Dust Devil Research
Planetary scientist Ralph Lorenz briefs us on the current state of our knowledge on dust devils on Earth and Mars.
Dunes on Tatooine
The fictional world Tatooine, scene of action in the Star Wars movies, is named after a town in Tunisia, where parts of the movies were filmed. The desert backdrops against which the movies were filmed are real terrestrial landscapes, which prove to be perhaps unexpectedly dynamic.