Across the United States, planetary science has taken center stage this week, with NASA and its partners sharing major updates on celestial discoveries and skywatching events. NASA led a highly anticipated live event from Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland on November nineteenth, unveiling the latest images and findings on Comet Three Eye Atlas, an interstellar visitor currently racing through our solar system. According to NASA, the agency’s fleet of spacecraft and ground-based telescopes collected imagery and data in a coordinated effort to study the composition, structure, and movement of this rare comet since its discovery in the summer of twenty twenty five. Mission leaders emphasized that these multi-instrument observations contribute to understanding how interstellar objects differ from those born in our own solar system, potentially offering new insights into planetary formation and the materials that seeded the planets observed today.
Meanwhile, skywatching opportunities in the United States have drawn both scientists and enthusiasts outside as Mars and Mercury appeared in a rare close conjunction after sunset on November twelfth. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory advised observers to look southwest in the early evening to spot these two planets appearing as close companions in the sky, despite being separated by over one hundred million miles in reality. Notably, Mars displayed a distinctive reddish orange hue, helping differentiate it from Mercury in the night sky. Just days later, the Leonid meteor shower, one of the year’s brightest, peaked during the nights of November sixteenth to seventeenth, with skywatchers across the country witnessing up to fifteen meteors per hour as Earth passed through debris left by the ancient comet Fifty Five P Tempel Tuttle. Public observatories and NASA outreach centers reported strong turnouts, with the Leonids described as a vivid reminder of the dynamic processes continually shaping our planet’s celestial environment, as highlighted by the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D C.
A striking planetary event occurred on November twenty third as Saturn’s rings seemed to vanish from view when the planet’s orientation temporarily hid their thin silhouette from Earth. NASA explained this ring plane crossing is a regular event, and the rings will gradually become visible again over time as Saturn continues its orbit. The Planetary Science Institute released findings this month suggesting that Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus may sustain a stable subsurface ocean suitable for life, based on new chemical and geophysical modeling. Additionally, planetary scientists at institutions across the United States are analyzing rocks from Earth and the Moon to reveal clues about Theia, the ancient planetary body believed to have formed our Moon, as reported by Science Daily.
The mood in the United States planetary science community is optimistic, with the end of a federal shutdown allowing NASA’s workforce to resume full operations. However, NASA remains only temporarily funded and faces ongoing budget negotiations in Congress, which could affect the pace of upcoming missions and research. Emerging patterns in these recent developments show continued American leadership in the collaborative global study of planetary bodies, the importance of public engagement in astronomy, and renewed focus on interstellar objects and planetary habitability as core frontiers in the field.
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Dec 17 20253 m