Planetary Science

As the InSight lander reports the largest-ever meteorite strikes on Mars, scientists wish it a fond farewell

An organism nicknamed “Conan the Bacterium” may have what it takes to live on Mars

NASA’s EMIT instrument has found more than 50 methane super emitters in its first few months of operation—and that’s not even its main job

Fresh data from the Juno probe’s flyby of Europa could help scientists learn whether this icy moon of Jupiter is habitable—or even inhabited

NASA confirms that its DART spacecraft nudged the asteroid Dimorphos into a new orbit

In case you missed it

The celestial crash between NASA’s DART spacecraft and the asteroid Dimorphos is yielding spectacular pictures and data

Radar images from the Zhurong rover reveal clues to the history of a largely unexplored region

A new formation method for rare “lonsdaleite” diamonds may illuminate a better way to produce them on Earth

The DART spacecraft has purposefully crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos, hopefully changing its orbit by a few minutes, in a milestone test of future planetary defense techniques

The DART mission to redirect an asteroid could be just the beginning of a robust planetary-defense program

The result offers a sneak peek at the observatory’s transformative potential for studying worlds beyond the solar system