The Planetary Society

In this week's episode of Planetary Radio, we welcome Vincent Ledvina, aka the Aurora Guy, to discuss the science behind the northern and southern lights and what they can reveal about our Sun, our planet, and worlds across our galaxy. 🌍

Could alien tech be lurking in our Solar System? 🤔 How might extraterrestrials detect and understand signs of life on Earth? 🌍 What can we learn about the evolution of early Earth life to apply to other worlds? 👾 This month’s Planetary Report explores these mysteries and more. ⬇️ Download the PDF version for free. ⬇️

Saturn is giving main character energy this weekend. 💅 On September 8th, Saturn is at opposition, meaning it's on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. It will rise in the east as the Sun sets in the west. Approximately the closest/brightest Saturn will appear for the next year! Saturn's rings are almost edge-on so check them out before they disappear from our perspective. 📸: Amateur astronomer Leo Evans captured this image of Saturn with a smartphone and an 8-inch reflector telescope. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gajrYcW5

Saturn is about to reach opposition, so it’ll be the closest and brightest it’ll be all year. Plus, a partial lunar eclipse will be visible to many people around the globe. See what else is happening in the night sky this September! 👀

POV: you're a spacecraft getting slingshot toward Venus. 📸 The European Space Agency’s Juice mission accomplished the first-ever “double” gravity assist when it flew by both Earth and the Moon. Juice has a long way to go before it gets to Jupiter, where it will study the moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. Learn more about the Juice mission and see the photo of Juice flying past the Moon in "The coolest new space pictures: August 2024" https://lnkd.in/gvuWwStj 📸: Earth seen by ESA's Juice spacecraft as it slingshots toward Venus. ESA / Juice / JMC

JWST has found rogue planets that may have formed like stars. 📸: The space telescope observed the young nebula NGC1333, a star-forming cluster about a thousand light-years away in the Perseus constellation, and identified six likely rogue planets. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana. Learn more and stay updated with the latest space news in this week's Downlink: https://lnkd.in/davi3K5c

This week on Planetary Radio: Boeing Starliner updates, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, SpaceX's Polaris Dawn, and the Ramses mission aiming to reach asteroid Apophis before 2029.

In 2029, a skyscraper-sized asteroid named Apophis will make a close approach to Earth. Three spacecraft, known as Ramses, may be there to observe it—two in orbit around the asteroid and one on its surface. But time is running out. With only four years to get Ramses ready for launch, European Space Agency - ESA has already begun working on the project, even before its official confirmation. Learn more about Ramses and how it plans to observe Apophis. ⬇️

Crickets — yes, crickets — could be the future of space food. Learn more on this week's episode of Planetary Radio. ⬇️

*Bruce Willis enters the chat.* Find out why nuking an asteroid could actually work in some situations (and why it's our best last-resort option). ⬇️