The odds of there being other planets like Earth in the Universe are heavily stacked in our favor. If every planet in our galaxy were the size of a basketball, you could stretch them in a line from ...

The farside also lacked the Moon’s familiar dark splotches. Formed as a result of active volcanism over 3 billion years ago, it was anyone’s guess why dark lava plains cover about 31% of the nearside ...

Our search for planets around other stars in our galaxy has yielded us more than 4,500 worlds. Quite a few of these exoplanets seem to be Earth-like, where surface conditions could sustain liquid ...

Did you know that the Moon looks different from Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres? Someone looking at the Moon from our north pole would see it upside down compared to someone seeing it from ...

We’re not the only world with dazzling auroras. Moons, planets, and even comets can have their own light shows, and some are very different from what we have on Earth. Auroras can be big or small, ...

Should I be worried about asteroids hitting Earth? You shouldn’t lose sleep over it. Damaging asteroids do not hit Earth very often. But you should care about it, because dangerous asteroids have ...

What happens when scientists fundamentally disagree about planetary bodies? It happens more often than you might think. These disagreements are often fundamental: How did the Moon get its craters?

The success of Artemis II firmly entrenched the Moon as the central focus for the United States’ human spaceflight program. Mars, which briefly captured the attention of the president last year, has ...

Pasadena, CA (January 26, 2026) — After 15 years of transformative leadership, Bill Nye will step down as CEO of The Planetary Society and transition into two new roles: Vice Chair of the Board of ...

Our volunteer Board of Directors is responsible for governing and setting The Planetary Society's policies and future directions. They are all leaders, chosen for their passion about and knowledge of ...

Whether you’re spotting planets with the naked eye or finding galaxies with a telescope, there are lots of ways you can take in the wonders of the universe from the comfort of Earth. It doesn’t take ...

Though once considered our solar system’s ninth planet, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Pluto is a Kuiper Belt object, meaning it lies within a thick disc of worlds beyond Neptune.