Planetary Science Stories
NASA Study Shows Ferns Facilitate Recovery from Environmental Disaster
NASA-supported scientists have shown how ferns might help ecosystems recover from disasters.
NASA DAVINCI Mission’s Many ‘Firsts’ to Unlock Venus’ Hidden Secrets
NASA's DAVINCI probe will be first in the 21st century to brave Venus’ atmosphere as it descends from above the planet down to its surface.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Reaches Top of Jezero Crater Rim
The road ahead will be even more scientifically intriguing, and probably somewhat easier-going, now that the six-wheeler has completed its long climb to the top. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has crested the top of Jezero Crater’s rim at a location…
NASA Performs First Aircraft Accident Investigation on Another World
The review takes a close look the final flight of the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which was the first aircraft to fly on another world. Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and AeroVironment are completing a detailed…
NASA’s Hubble Celebrates Decade of Tracking Outer Planets
Encountering Neptune in 1989, NASA’s Voyager mission completed humankind’s first close-up exploration of the four giant outer planets of our solar system. Collectively, since their launch in 1977, the twin Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft discovered that Jupiter, Saturn,…
Towards Autonomous Surface Missions on Ocean Worlds
Through advanced autonomy testbed programs, NASA is setting the groundwork for one of its top priorities—the search for signs of life and potentially habitable bodies in our solar system and beyond. The prime destinations for such exploration are bodies containing…
NASA-Led Team Links Comet Water to Earth’s Oceans
Scientists find that cometary dust affects interpretation of spacecraft measurements, reopening the case for comets as potential sources of water for early Earth.
Coming Spring 2025: Planetary Defenders Documentary
How would humanity respond if we discovered an asteroid headed for Earth? NASA’s Planetary Defenders is a gripping documentary that follows the dedicated scientists involved in the high-stakes world of asteroid detection and planetary defense.
This Thanksgiving, We’re Grateful for NASA’s Volunteer Scientists!
This year, we’re giving thanks to you for Doing NASA Science! You and the millions of other volunteers have enabled an incredible banquet of discoveries—by taking data, analyzing data, writing code, writing papers, and even inventing your own science projects.…
NASA: Mystery of Life’s Handedness Deepens
The mystery of why life uses molecules with specific orientations has deepened with a NASA-funded discovery that RNA — a key molecule thought to have potentially held the instructions for life before DNA emerged — can favor making the building…