Your picks for the Best of 2023, our favorite space pics, a mind-boggling peak speed, and more.

The results are in for the Best of 2023! People around the world voted, and here are the winning space images, missions, exploration milestones, and more.

» Washington Post, 14 Nov, Charlie Jane Anders: The 10 best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2023 by Kitasei, Moreno-Garcia, Awad, Link, Huang, Googins, Talabi, Kaner, Parker-Chan, and Blackgoose

» NY Times, 22 Nov 2023: Essay by Kelly Barnhill since experiencing a traumatic brain injury in 2021

» Washington Post, Sophie Nguyen, 24 Nov 2023: Christopher Paolini wrote ‘Eragon’ as a teen. Now 40, he’s still ...Read More

Space exploration bestows us with many gifts, from scientific insights and beautiful images to technological marvels and inspiring achievements. Now it’s your turn to bestow some cosmic gifts.

Planetary Society members helped us create our space gift recommendations for this year.

The aging complex will be replaced by commercially operated space stations, and deorbited as soon as 2030.

On the one-year anniversary of LightSail 2’s end of flight, we look back at the mission that united so many.

The Earth is thought to be about 4.54 billion years old. Learn more about how it formed, and how we know when this all happened.

» Slate, 7 Nov 2023: Laura Miller reviews Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing: “I’ve Been Yours for Longer Than You Could Ever Imagine”, subtitled “Is the dragon-school ‘romantasy’ series that’s dominating the bestseller lists actually any good?”

Excerpt:

What’s Fourth Wing like? A more pertinent question would ask what it isn’t like. Seemingly every single sentence in its 528 pages includes at least one cliché, and you can spend hours ...Read More

Who needs candid celebrity snapshots? We’ve got all the best pics of your favorite planetary bodies.

Spacecraft have been taking pictures of Mars from space since 1965. Here are some of our favorites.

On Nov. 1, 2023, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew past Dinkinesh, a small asteroid in the main belt, and discovered a binary pair of moonlets in orbit around the asteroid.

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

» Publishers Weekly‘s Best Books 2023 includes SF/Fantasy/Horror titles by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Lavie Tidhar, Yukimi Ogawa, Marina Enriquez, Emily Tesh, Ann Leckie, and S.L. Huang

» NY Times, Rick Yancey, 3 Nov 2023: 3 New Middle Grade Science Fiction Novels Disturb and Delight, subtitled “Jeanne DuPrau’s ‘Project F,’ Patricia Forde’s ‘The Girl Who Fell to Earth’ and Donna Barba Higuera’s ‘Alebrijes’ answer the question, Could this be ...Read More

Space superlatives abound this week. We’ve made a couple of awards, but the rest are up to you to decide.

Space can be a scary place! But fear not — it’s all still fascinating.

» NY Times “Inside the Best-Seller List”, posted 19 Oct 2023: For N.K. Jemisin, Reality Inspired Horror Fiction, subtitled “She didn’t think she was going to contribute a short story to a new anthology. A stressful vacation changed her mind.” About her story in the Jordan Peele/John Joseph Adams anthology Out There Screaming.

» The New Yorker, Kristen Roupenian, 16 Oct 2023: When a Novelist Carries On What Another ...Read More

With International Observe the Moon Night coming up, there are many moons worth checking out.

Japan's experimental mission aims to prove the concept of a lightweight, accurate Moon landing spacecraft.

The Development Associate (DA) assists with The Planetary Society’s fundraising activities and provides the CDO with administrative and executive support.