Planetary Science Stories
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-Funded Study Examines Tidal Effects on Planet and Moon Interiors
NASA-supported scientists have developed a method to compute how tides affect the interiors of planets and moons, which will help interpret data from missions like NASA's Europa Clipper.
Sadie Coffin Named Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences/NASA Citizen Science Leaders Series Fellow
In August, the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences (AAPS) announced a fellowship opportunity in partnership with the NASA Citizen Science Leaders Series. Fifty-five people applied! The applications came from graduate students and early career professionals in diverse disciplines, including astronomy,…
NASA’s New Edition of Graphic Novel Features Europa Clipper
NASA has released a new edition of Issue 4 of the Astrobiology Graphic History series. The issue now includes NASA's Europa Clipper mission.
NASA’s Perseverance Captures ‘Googly Eye’ During Solar Eclipse
The tiny, potato-shaped moon Phobos, one of two Martian moons, cast a silhouette as it passed in front of the Sun, creating an eye in Mars’ sky. From its perch on the western wall of Mars’ Jezero Crater, NASA’s Perseverance…
How NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Could Decipher the Moon’s Icy Secrets
There’s water on the Moon, but scientists only have a general idea of where it is and what form it is in. A trailblazing NASA mission will get some answers. When NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer begins orbiting the Moon next year,…