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What's New in Lunar & Planetary Science

NASA has chosen an instrument to be flown on the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO). The instrument, ShadowCam, will map the reflectance within permanently shadowed regions on the Moon to search for frost and ice deposits. KPLO, the first South Korean lunar mission, is scheduled to launch in December 2018. More...

The Cassini spacecraft successfully completed its first dive through the region between Saturn and its rings, returning a signal at 06:56 UT on 27 April. This is the beginning of Cassini's "Grand Finalé", which ends with the spacecraft plunging into Saturn's atmosphere on 15 September 2017. More...

NASA has announced new details on the discovery of a planetary system by researchers at the University of Liege in Belgium. The system, called TRAPPIST-1, contains seven roughly Earth-size planets orbiting close to an ultra-cool dwarf star. Three of the planets appear to be in the habitable zone, potentially having liquid water and conditions amenable to life. More...