Planetary Society News

The latest stories from The Planetary Society, featuring humanity's quest to explore worlds, find life, and defend Earth.
Updated: 11 hours 30 min ago
Picks, pics, and peaks
Your picks for the Best of 2023, our favorite space pics, a mind-boggling peak speed, and more.
Categories: Space News
The best of 2023
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.
Categories: Space News
Gifts from above
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.
Categories: Space News
Perfect gifts for space lovers, by space lovers
Planetary Society members helped us create our space gift recommendations for this year.
Categories: Space News
How NASA plans to deorbit the International Space Station
The aging complex will be replaced by commercially operated space stations, and deorbited as soon as 2030.
Categories: Space News
LightSail 2’s legacy lives on
On the one-year anniversary of LightSail 2’s end of flight, we look back at the mission that united so many.
Categories: Space News
How old is the Earth?
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.
Categories: Space News
Planetary paparazzi
Who needs candid celebrity snapshots? We’ve got all the best pics of your favorite planetary bodies.
Categories: Space News
The best pictures of Mars from space
Spacecraft have been taking pictures of Mars from space since 1965. Here are some of our favorites.
Categories: Space News
Lucy’s flyby of Dinkinesh: Everything you need to know
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.
Categories: Space News
Why aren't there more close-up images of Uranus and Neptune?
There aren't many close-up, high-resolution images of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. The reason comes down to distance.
Categories: Space News
The best! The farthest! The maximum!
Space superlatives abound this week. We’ve made a couple of awards, but the rest are up to you to decide.
Categories: Space News
Galactic ghouls and vampire stars
Space can be a scary place! But fear not — it’s all still fascinating.
Categories: Space News
Behold, the moon(s)!
With International Observe the Moon Night coming up, there are many moons worth checking out.
Categories: Space News
SLIM, Japan’s precision lunar lander
Japan's experimental mission aims to prove the concept of a lightweight, accurate Moon landing spacecraft.
Categories: Space News
Development Associate
The Development Associate (DA) assists with The Planetary Society’s fundraising activities and provides the CDO with administrative and executive support.
Categories: Space News
Science Editor
As our Science Editor, you'll translate complex space science concepts into engaging and understandable web content, videos, and online courses, and ensure that all content is both scientifically accurate and optimized for online success.
Categories: Space News
Syzygy + apogee = majesty
An annular solar eclipse is about to wow the world, and there’s plenty more to get excited about in space science and exploration this week.
Categories: Space News
Psyche mission successfully launches
The spacecraft has begun its six-year journey to the same-name metal world.
Categories: Space News
How astronomers search for life on exoplanets
Technologies for studying planets around other stars are advancing all the time. Along with those advancements come new ways to look for possible signs of life on those planets.
Categories: Space News