Planetary Science
- Planetary Science
Here’s what you might have missed in space this year
Missions to Jupiter and Saturn made big headlines, and 2017 also saw exciting updates from missions of years past.
- Astronomy
NASA’s next stop will be Titan or a comet
The finalists for NASA’s next solar system mission aim to send a drone to Saturn’s largest moon or to return samples from a comet.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s rings are surprisingly young and may be from shredded moons
Final data from the Cassini spacecraft put a date and a mass on the gas giant’s iconic rings.
- Astronomy
New Horizons’ next target might have a moon
New Horizons’ next target, Kuiper Belt object MU69, may have a small moon.
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s massive Great Red Spot is at least 350 kilometers deep
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has measured the depth of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot for the first time.
- Earth
Watching this newborn island erode could tell us a lot about Mars
The birth and death of a young volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean may shed light on the origins of volcanoes in Mars’ wetter past.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s rings mess with the gas giant’s atmosphere
Data from Cassini’s shallow dives into Saturn’s ionosphere show that this charged layer in the atmosphere interacts with the planet’s rings.
- Astronomy
Most complete map of Titan reveals connected seas and cookie-cutter lakes
The latest map of Titan, based on all the data from the Cassini spacecraft, displays new details about the moon’s lakes and seas.
- Astronomy
We still don’t know where the first interstellar asteroid came from
Astronomers are tracking stars to see if one of them launched the first interstellar asteroid at Earth.
- Astronomy
Here is Cassini’s last broad look at the Saturn system
Two days before plunging into Saturn, Cassini took a mosaic image of the gas giant, its rings and its moons.
- Astronomy
Haze keeps Pluto cool by kicking heat out to space
Pluto may be the only place in the solar system whose atmosphere is kept cool by solid hazes, not warmed by gas.
- Astronomy
NASA wants your help naming New Horizons’ next destination
NASA’s New Horizons mission team is asking the public to vote on a nickname for the spacecraft’s next destination.
