In some cases, we can actually see exoplanets next to their host stars and track their orbits. | Continue reading
Here are the distinct ways in which the moons of our Solar System formed. | Continue reading
The mission proposal calls for nuclear fission power. Breakthroughs would boost China’s overall exploration capabilities. | Continue reading
Here is what we know about the capabilities and technologies China is considering developing in the near future for near-Earth object monitoring, cataloging, early warning and response. | Continue reading
While NASA will launch Dragonfly later this decade to Titan, another potentially habitable moon of Saturn, no space agency is currently funding a mission to Enceladus. | Continue reading
The array of space-simulating test facilities a spacecraft tours through before it can blast off of Earth. | Continue reading
NASA’s Voyager missions provided an unprecedented glimpse into the outer solar system. | Continue reading
An up-close look at volcanoes in space and how they differ from those on Earth. | Continue reading
See every city-killer-size asteroid that has passed or will pass closer to Earth than the Moon. | Continue reading
Readers, colleagues, friends: it's finally happened. My first book is finally out in the world. Here's an excerpt that explains the design and operation of Curiosity's MMRTG, (it also applies to the future Mars 2020 rover power supply). | Continue reading
Two years after launch, The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft is still solar sailing and paving the way for future missions. | Continue reading
Don’t leave it up to cosmic fate; take action right now to defend our planet from dangerous impacts. | Continue reading
The data come from NASA’s Pioneer Venus Multiprobe mission, which deployed a series of probes into the planet’s clouds. | Continue reading
In 1975 and 1982, 4 of the Soviet Union’s Venera probes captured our only images of Venus’ surface. | Continue reading
How did our solar system come to be? Why are the planets, asteroids, comets, and other small worlds where they are now? | Continue reading
China's Chang’e-5 mission will bring Moon samples back to Earth to help us find out what was happening late in the Moon's history. | Continue reading
Neptune, our outermost planet, is a windy blue world with exotic ice, raging storms, rings, and a moon that could have a subsurface ocean. | Continue reading
MMX launches in 2024 to study Mars' moons and return samples from Phobos to Earth in 2029. | Continue reading
PlanetVac, developed by Honeybee Robotics, is designed to be a reliable, flexible, low-cost sample collection technology. | Continue reading
Look back at the remarkable achievements our members have made over the past 4 decades, alongside other space milestones and events. | Continue reading
These leftover planet-building materials are like time capsules that give us a peek into our origins. | Continue reading
Your guide to total, partial, and annular eclipses: what causes them, what you'll see, and when the next one will happen. | Continue reading
A new and improved map of all the places on Mars where we have landed—or crashed—plus the planned locations for the landings of the future Perseverance, Tianwen-1, and Rosalind Franklin Mars rovers. | Continue reading
Venus, the 2nd planet from our Sun, may have had oceans and been habitable to life before being transformed into an inhospitable wasteland. | Continue reading
The Moon is the only world besides Earth ever visited by humans. By studying it, scientists can piece together Earth’s origin story, including how life may have started. | Continue reading
Learn all about what’s happening in space exploration, and check out some great space art. | Continue reading
Welcome to my 11th annual list of recommended space books for kids! This year I had more than 80 books to read, and I've winnowed the list to recommend 29. There are books for all ages from 0 to 18 and beyond. | Continue reading
LightSail is a citizen-funded project from The Planetary Society to send a small spacecraft, propelled solely by sunlight, to Earth orbit. | Continue reading
Star Trek Voyager Emergency Medical Hologram and Planetary Society Board member Robert Picardo uncovers rare Star Trek artifacts at The Planetary Society. | Continue reading
We've got 2 fish-eye pictures of the spacecraft's solar sail from opposite cameras, and we're hoping they can be combined. | Continue reading
Javier Peralta plumbs the depths of Venus’ atmosphere through the eyes of the Venus Express and Akatsuki orbiters. | Continue reading
The current strategy includes the Mars 2020 rover, a lander carrying a rover and ascent vehicle, and an Earth return orbiter. | Continue reading
The LSST is expected to increase the number of known small bodies by more than a factor of 10. | Continue reading
The combination lander, rover, and orbiter fired its main engine to enter orbit around the Moon at 09:02 IST (03:32 UTC) on 20 August. | Continue reading
Carl Sagan takes us from the birth to the death of the universe. How do we reconcile our place within a universe that will die? Join us for the latest discussion on episode 10 of Cosmos. | Continue reading
The high point of the spacecraft's orbit around the Earth on Monday was 729 kilometers, an increase of 3.2 kilometers since sail deployment. | Continue reading
In the past 4 days, the spacecraft has raised its orbital high point, or apogee, by about 2 kilometers. | Continue reading
Images from The Planetary Society's spacecraft confirm the solar sails deployed on 23 June 2019 at 11:47 PDT (18:47 UTC). | Continue reading
Twenty-five years ago, multiple fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, changing the face of the planet and the course of planetary science. | Continue reading
Pictures taken by the spacecraft's cameras Friday evening show a crescent Earth, as LightSail 2 heads into orbital sunset. | Continue reading
Liftoff is scheduled for 14 July 2019 at 21:21 UTC (15 July 2019 at 02:51 IST local time), atop a GSLV-MKIII rocket from India. | Continue reading
See the latest data from The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft, and find out when it will be passing over your location. | Continue reading
The Planetary Society's solar sail CubeSat lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 25 June at 02:30 EDT (06:30 UTC). | Continue reading
The Planetary Society is the largest and most effective nonprofit organization that promotes the exploration of space through education, advocacy, and innovative projects. | Continue reading
While LightSail 1 and 2 look nearly identical at a glance, there are a few important hardware differences between the two spacecraft. | Continue reading
The Planetary Society statement regarding NASA’s FY 2020 supplemental budget request. | Continue reading
The first science results from the unprecedented Chang’e-4 lunar far side mission are in. The mission’s Yutu-2 rover, deployed from the lander shortly after the Chang’e-4 landing on 3 January, has, with the help of the Queqiao relay satellite, returned data which suggests it has … | Continue reading
The Planetary Society's solar sail spacecraft will lift off 22 June 2019 on a mission to demonstrate the power of sunlight for propulsion. | Continue reading