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Space Topics

All Space Topics by Group


Contests, Events, and Awards

Planetary Society space-related contests are a fun way to get involved with space exploration. Naming contests, essay contests, art contests, and more, Society space contests are often tied to real space missions with out of this world prizes.

Extrasolar Planets

Today, we know of hundreds of planets orbiting other stars, and we keep finding more. Studying extrasolar planets could help us understand our own origins better and might help us determine whether life is common, or rare, in our galaxy.

How It Works

Exploring space has required the development of new technologies, new research techniques, and new ways of studying the heavens by thousands of dedicated scientists, engineers, and visionaries. Learn how all of this came together through timelines, explanations, and profiles of the history, techniques, people, and places of space exploration.

Near Earth Objects

Our solar system is teeming with asteroids and comets, some of which periodically pass close to Earth. These space rocks, called near-Earth objects, provide good opportunities for study and can also be potentially dangerous to Earth.

Our Solar System

Take a tour of our solar system. Explore the planets, their moons and ring systems, and learn about objects from the far reaches of our planetary neighborhood: asteroids, comets, and trans-Neptunian objects.

Search for Life

Does life exist beyond Earth? We search the skies for signs of intelligent life in the universe, and, as we learn more about the heartiness of life on Earth, the prospect of life on other planets becomes even more intriguing.