Why Pluto Still Deserves Our Love

Nine Years After Its Launch, a NASA Spacecraft Is About to See What the Formerly Major Planet Can Tell Us About the Origins of the Solar System

One of my first memories as a child in the 1950s was a discussion I had with my brother in our tiny bedroom in the family house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. We had heard in school about a planet called Pluto.

Pluto was the farthest, coldest, and darkest thing a child could imagine. We guessed how long it would take to die if we stood on the surface of such a frozen place wearing only the clothes we had on. We tried to figure out how much colder Pluto was than …

by Bonnie Buratti | July 14, 2015

The Potential for Life on Jupiter’s Moon

NASA’s Europa Flyby Mission Has Tantalized Scientists Eager for Clues About Possible Alien Life

by Robert Pappalardo | May 27, 2015

This week we are one step closer to understanding a world in our solar system that I believe has the best chance of supporting life beyond our own planet. NASA …

The Vivid Dispatches from Space That Made Me Want to Become a Scientist

Images From Historic Voyager 1 and 2 Missions Introduced Me to the Vastness of Space—and the Exciting Reality of Its Deep Exploration

by Jim Bell | May 21, 2015

I remember hearing about the launches of the twin Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft on the evening news in 1977. I was 12 then, and in love with the …

NASA Is About to Open a 4.6-Billion-Year-Old Time Capsule

What Scientists Hope to Find When the Dawn Spacecraft Begins Exploring the Dwarf Planet Ceres

by Marc Rayman | March 4, 2015

I have been in love since the age of 4. The object of my lifelong passion is the universe, which I first recognized when a meteor streaked through the sky …

The Path to Mars Goes From Lebanon to Pasadena

Growing Up in the Middle East, I Loved John Wayne and Gazing at the Stars. I Came to America Believing Nothing Was Impossible.

by Charles Elachi | September 25, 2014

“Only the United States could do this.” Those words were uttered by the head of a foreign space agency who was one of my VIP guests at NASA’s Jet Propulsion …

Saturn Is the Real Lord of the Rings

Hand-Picked Images from Our Solar System’s (Arguably) Most Photogenic Planet

June 21, 2014

by Linda Spilker

Neither you nor I could survive at Saturn. It’s cold and so far away (900 million miles) that the sun looks like a bright dot. There’s none of …

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