Dragonfly is soaring into its design phase. NASA's mission to send a flying spacecraft to Saturn's moon Titan has been authorized to proceed with work on final mission design and fabrication. This week on Planetary Radio, we get an update on the …
China has been busy exploring the inner Solar System in recent years. Their first independent interplanetary mission, Tianwen-1, launched for Mars in 2020. Tianwen-2 is in development, and will launch in 2025 to target a near-Earth asteroid and a main belt …
Was Earth born with its water? Earth was born about 4.54 billion years ago, after our Sun formed from a collapsing cloud of gas and dust. Leftover material formed the rest of the Solar System, including our planet. Was Earth simply born with everything …
When it comes to peering through clouds, JWST is a pro. The space telescope’s infrared cameras are specialized at looking through clouds of dust, gas, and other material to witness processes taking place within them. This image, for example, shows stars …
When it comes to studying planetary bodies, infrared imaging provides some other advantages as well. Using JWST’s unparalleled sensitivity and resolution, these images capture reflected sunlight in select infrared bands, emphasizing contrasts often hidden …
The Planetary Society’s very good friend and invaluable colleague, Jim Burke, died this year at the age of 97. Jim was more than a polymath. He not only knew a lot about a lot but he did a lot with a lot: physics, math, biology, engineering and then …
Space is vast. It often takes planetary exploration missions a long time to get where they’re going. As our robotic ambassadors cruise through the Solar System and beyond, sometimes the only thing to do is sit back and enjoy the journey. BepiColombo, which …
The Space Shuttle Program achieved a lot — but did it achieve its main goals? The Shuttle was intended to provide crewed access to orbit at lower costs, with rapid reusability and reliability. John Logsdon, who founded the Space Policy Institute and now …
Best “Fact Worth Sharing” from our weekly Downlink newsletter With trillions of galaxies in the Universe, each containing hundreds of billions of stars, most of which are likely to host planets, many of which host moons, the number of worlds out there is …
November’s best space pics are here. Although they didn’t get a chance to be included in our Best of 2023 campaign, there were some jaw-dropping space images released this past month. We’ve collected our favorite space images from November, including this …
Japan's ispace has unveiled its newest micro lunar rover. The private spaceflight company’s mini rover will fly on a Moon landing mission in the winter of 2024. The rover is designed to use a shovel to scoop lunar regolith and a camera to image those …
Looking for the best space gifts for the holidays? Whether you’re shopping for the space enthusiast in your life or are looking for ideas for your own wish list, we’ve got you covered. This space gift guide brings together suggestions from the people who …
Before NASA says goodbye to the ISS, it plans to transition its research and astronauts to commercial space stations. Just as the agency turned to private companies like SpaceX for ISS crew and cargo transportation, it wants to become a space station …
Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman passed away on November 7 at age 95. In 1965, Borman spent 14 days in space aboard the Gemini 7 mission, completing the first rendezvous with another spacecraft. Then, in 1968, he led a team of astronauts who became the …
We've got you covered for the 2024 total solar eclipse April 8, 2024, the last total solar eclipse in North America for 20 years will grace the skies, creating a cosmic spectacle not to be missed. We developed an ultimate eclipse guide to help you make …
As the proto-Earth grew, heavier elements within it began to sink toward the center, forming the core, and lighter elements rose to the surface. This process, called differentiation, likely took place over tens of millions of years. During these early …
Become A Member When you become a member, you join our mission to increase discoveries in our solar system and beyond, elevate the search for life outside our planet, and decrease the risk of Earth being hit by an asteroid. Your role in space exploration …
Lucy’s flyby observations showed that Dinkinesh is similar in shape to near-Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu, which are both known to be rubble pile asteroids (loose collections of rocks and dust held together by gravity, rather than solid objects), …
Uranus is between 2.6 billion kilometers (1.6 billion miles) and 3.2 billion kilometers (1.98 billion miles) from Earth, depending on where both planets are in their orbits. Neptune is between 4.3 billion kilometers (2.7 billion miles) and 4.7 billion …
Solar maximum is coming up next year. Revised predictions suggest that the Sun will reach the peak of its current activity cycle in 2024, one year earlier than previous estimates. This is good news for anyone planning on viewing the April 8 total solar …
