NASA Planetary Science

NASA’s planetary science program explores the objects in our solar system to better understand its history and the distribution of life within.

Advancing Knowledge of Other Worlds

For decades, NASA’s planetary science program has advanced scientific understanding of our solar system in extraordinary ways, pushing the limits of spacecraft and robotic engineering design and operation.

NASA spacecraft have visited every planet and a variety of small bodies, and current and upcoming missions will bring back samples from exciting destinations, allowing detailed study and analysis back on Earth.

Using recommendations from the National Academies' Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032 as our guide, NASA planetary science missions and research inform us about our solar system's origin and evolution, which will enable the expansion of humanity beyond Earth.

Jupiter is in the upper right corner with moon Io to the bottom left.
Just hours before NASA's Juno mission completed its 53rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 31, 2023, the spacecraft sped past the planet's volcanic moon Io and captured this dramatic view of both bodies in the same frame.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Planetary Science Happenings

This stylized illustration, created for the 2024 total solar eclipse, shows Earth’s Moon blocking the Sun from view and revealing the Sun’s corona, or outermost atmosphere. The Sun’s magnetic field affects charged particles in the corona, causing elaborate streamers and plumes that are depicted in this artist’s interpretation.

Total Solar Eclipse 2024: The Moon’s Moment in the Sun

On April 8, 2024, much of North America will experience a solar eclipse: a cosmic alignment of Sun, Moon, and Earth. The Moon’s shadow path will make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast, cross the U.S. from Texas to Maine, and exit North America via Newfoundland. 

An image of the Europa Clipper vault plate, highlighted from the upper left corner casting shadows that emphasize engraved waveforms emanating from a central point symbolizing the word 'water' in multiple languages. The waveforms present as audio frequency waves. The vault plate is metal silver and the engravings are black, set against a black background.

NASA Unveils Design for Message Heading to Jupiter’s Moon Europa

When it launches in October, the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a richly layered dispatch that includes more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public.

Mission Manager Update: All VIPER Flight Instruments Installed

The VIPER team continues to push forward with the build of the flight trover that will go to the surface of the Moon, with all of VIPER’s flight instruments installed, and the rover more than 80% built.

Silver metal wheel-shaped

NASA Announces OSIRIS-REx Bulk Sample Mass

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivered 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) of material from asteroid Bennu when it returned to Earth on Sep. 24, 2023; the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space and over twice the mission’s requirement.

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A full globe view of Mars

Exploring our solar system's inner, rocky worlds as NASA develops new missions to extend human presence beyond Earth.

Unlocking the secrets of distant worlds to understand more about the formation of our solar system.

Revealing the foundational materials of our solar system with asteroids, comets, meteors, and objects in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud.

Looking for the origins of life on this planet and signs that it may exist elsewhere in the universe.

Planetary Science Missions

NASA’s robotic explorers gather data to help scientists understand how the planets formed, what triggered different evolutionary paths among planets, what processes have occurred and are active, and how Earth among the planets became habitable.

In searching for evidence of life beyond Earth, scientists use these data to map zones of habitability, studying the chemistry of unfamiliar worlds, and unveiling the processes that lead to conditions necessary for life. With this knowledge, NASA is enabling safe and effective human missions to destinations beyond low Earth orbit.

Blue spiral graphic against space background showing planetary science mission icons
NASA Planetary Science Division missions. (January 2024)

NASA missions continue to explore from the innermost planet, Mercury, to the outer reaches of the solar system, where Pluto orbits among many Kuiper Belt Objects. We have orbited and traversed the surface of Mars, finding evidence of liquid water and ancient habitable environments.

Closer to home, the Planetary Science Division uses Earth-orbiting telescopes and ground-based sensors in coordination with other organizations, including the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force. These telescopes and sensors are used to survey space to detect, track, catalog, and characterize near-Earth objects (NEOs), which may pose hazards to Earth or provide destinations and resources for future exploration.

A robotic arm laden with science instruments extends toward a rocky outcrop on Mars.
NASA’s Perseverance rover puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
An illustration shows a spacecraft in silhouette above an icy moon's surface with reddish fractures. Beyond the moon's horizon, the planet Jupiter sits in the distance.
Illustration of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft above Jupiter's ocean moon Europa. The spacecraft will use its powerful suite of science instruments to determine if the moon has the ingredients to support life as we know it – that is, "Is Europa habitable?"
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Falcon heavy rocket carrying Psyche spacecraft emits fire and smoke as it lifts off
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is launched from Launch Complex 39A, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will travel to a metal-rich asteroid by the same name orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter to study it’s composition. The spacecraft also carries the agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which will test laser communications beyond the Moon.
NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
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