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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.

Kate Howells

The Hera launch: What to expect

The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch a mission to study the aftermath of DART's impact on the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos.

Kate Howells

The Europa Clipper launch: What to expect

NASA is preparing to launch its flagship mission to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. Launching as early as Oct. 10, 2024, and arriving in 2030, the mission will explore the icy world with a subsurface ocean that scientists think could have conditions favorable to life.

The Downlink

Someone’s aliens

Life thrives on Earth, and we even send evidence of our presence out into the Solar System. Is anyone out there looking for us?

Andrew Jones

The Tianlin Space Telescope

China is in the early stages of planning a huge space observatory to help answer the matter of whether we are alone in the galaxy.

The Downlink

Super-size it

Europa Clipper is a big spacecraft with big solar panels, all so it can perform a big mission. The galaxy is big too, and a Planetary Society member painted it that way.

The Downlink

Wow! Boom! Ultra cool!

The “Wow!" signal has a new explanation, and an ultra-cool experiment advances quantum sensing in space. Plus, making an asteroid go “boom!” might work, depending on the circumstances.