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What's New in Lunar & Planetary Science

The Cassini spacecraft will plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on 15 September 2017, ending a nearly 20-year missionx More...

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...

NASA has announced new details on the discovery of a planetary system by researchers at the University of Liege, 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...

This Day in Planetary and Lunar Exploration History

September 22

1966: Surveyor 2 impacts the Moon due to failed ignition of landing engine.
1971: Beginning of global martian dust storm which affected Mars 2, Mars 3, and Mariner 9 missions.
2001: The Deep Space 1 probe flies within 2200 km of Comet Borrelly.