Space and Planetary Sciences

Jacobus Kapteyn at 175: Still expanding our cosmic horizon

Sabrina Minnick January 23, 2026

IC410_Tadpoles. Photo by the author

January 19th marked the 175th birthday of Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn. His work and legacy had a profound yet subtle impact on the astronomical community and our understanding of the cosmos. His lasting contributions and methodologies continue to be refined and provide the foundation for ongoing astronomical research and discoveries. After he completed his studies, Kapteyn worked at Leiden Ob ...[Read More]

The prize that failed forward: How a 100,000-franc quest for aliens funded a century of astronomy

Asmae Ourkiya December 17, 2025

Photo by Leo Visions. Source: Unsplash

Today, 17 December, marks 125 years since the formal announcement of one of the most eccentric, ambitious, and ultimately consequential prizes in the history of science: the Prix Pierre Guzman. Announced by the French Académie des Sciences in December 1900, the award promised 100,000 francs, which is the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars today, to the first person who could successful ...[Read More]

Io: a spongy world consumed by molten rock

Anna Katsigera April 30, 2025

Volcano Erupts on Io (Credit: NASA, NASA-JPL, DLR)

Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active world in our solar system, with hundreds of volcanoes that constantly erupt on its ever renewing surface. Although Io always points the same side toward Jupiter in its orbit around the gas giant, two other Galilean moons, Europa and Ganymede, pull Io’s orbit into an irregularly elliptical one. Thus, in its widely varying distances from ...[Read More]

Space debris: Borrowing the planet from our children- Why we need to mitigate space desecration

Asmae Ourkiya January 17, 2025

Photo taken by Peter Bo

On December 11, 2024, while taking part in AGU’s 2024 Annual Meeting, I attended a press conference hosted by experts from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Michigan that focuses on the serious risks posed by space debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). As we are heading towards an increasingly crowded space environment, the question on everyone’s mind is: What can we do to ...[Read More]