PSI's Carly Howett was part of the team of researchers who made this discovery. Read the full story: buff.ly/KESQKzr

#SciArt: PSI Senior Scientist Darby Dyar made this quilt in 2018 for her friends and colleagues, Molly McCanta and Brad Thomson.

PSI in the News: buff.ly/ARpqwrB

#ClarkVision: On an early evening in May, the Milky Way and the constellation of Orion set in Canyonlands National Park, Utah, making a stunning rainbow nightscape.

#JunoCam: Participatory scientist Todd Goodwin processed this zoomed-in image of a Jovian storm to resemble the Eye of Sauron. Interested in processing your own JunoCam images? Visit: buff.ly/6qYZkpo 📸: NASA/JPL/SwRI/MSSS/Todd Goodwin

PSI in the News: buff.ly/AxcQVoO

PSI Senior Scientist Darby Dyar was presented the Roebling Medal at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), held this month in San Antonio, Texas. Read about the award, get to know Darby, and subscribe to our newsletter: buff.ly/odYnpPI

Happy Friday, and Happy Halloween! 🎃 🪐 🐾 This week's #PlanetaryPet is Marshmellow, Dan Berman's unusual thinking cap!

PSI in the News:

Thanks to all who came to our Spooky Star Party last night! We had a blast sharing some of the cool things we do here! See the full gallery: buff.ly/adGQi9I 📸: PSI/Alan Fischer

#JunoCam: Did you know that light from the Sun takes about 45 minutes to reach Europa? Because of the distance, sunlight is about 25 times fainter at Jupiter and Europa than at Earth. 📸: NASA/JPL/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/Thomas Thomopoulos

See you TOMORROW! 👻🌌🎃🔭 Join us for hands-on activities & scientific demonstrations, science art displays & talks, telescope tours of the Moon & stars, snacks & drinks, as well as a chance to talk with scientists & our new Director! 1700 E. Fort Lowell Rd, Tucson, Az 85719

Read Dan's Q&A, learn about his recent work mapping Martian crater Barnard, and subscribe to our newsletter: buff.ly/UdFgk4i

Happy Friday! 🪐 🐾 The very intense and ever-watchful Sheera is this week’s #PlanetaryPet. She was named after the He-Man character She-Ra. PSI’s Ashley Murphy says that Sheera, a stray kitten, found her in 2011, and they have been roommates ever since.

PSI in the News: PSI's Nalin Samarasinha talks to AZPM host Tony Perkins about the two comets appearing in the sky during late October. Listen:

TOMORROW at 11am MST PSI's Alex Patthoff will be featured on SETI Live. He'll discuss his findings that Uranus likely once hosted an deep ocean beneath it's icy surface.

#JunoCam: The hypnotic swirling clouds of giant Jupiter 🩵 🔥 🪼 🏵️ JunoCam images, like this one, were processed by citizen scientists! If you are interested in processing your own JunoCam images, visit: buff.ly/6qYZkpo Credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Seán Doran

NEXT WEEK: You're invited to our Spooky Star Party on Oct. 28 from 6-8pm in Tucson! There will be a comet making demo, a science art activity, meteorites, telescope tours of the sky, 3D printed asteroids, snacks, drinks and more! PSI headquarters are located at 1700 E. Fort Lowell Rd. 85719.

PSI's Roger Clark captured a photo of comet Swan C/2025 R2 on Friday night. "Star color is close to what we would see with our eyes in telescopes: solar type stars are white, cooler stars yellow to orange and red, and stars hotter than our Sun are bluish-white," he said.

Ashley is part of the team that helped find potential signs of past life on Mars. "I have loved bird watching since I was a kid. I currently live in California, and the diversity of birds here is incredible! I also enjoy reading non-fiction." Get to know Ashley! buff.ly/hUtlNDM

Happy Friday! 🪐 🐾 This week’s #PlanetaryPet is the adorable and thunder-averse Stella who lives with PSI’s Pamela Gay. You can just see her little behind sticking out from her pillow bunker, waiting for the storm to stop.

For anyone following the flurry of comet updates over the last week or so! buff.ly/FUBuDXf

#JunoCam: Jupiter looking like a swirled latte art. Enjoy! ☕ Interested in processing your own JunoCam images? Visit buff.ly/dCAW6H0 📸: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Vkumar

Read the full story: buff.ly/dd8WYfP 🧪 🔭

What inspired you to become a planetary scientist? I’m actually an astronomer/programmer. I use my coding skills to support space science related image analysis. Like many others, I jumped from a love of scifi to studying science. My gateway show: Battlestar Galactica. Full Q&A: buff.ly/wM9Mr6F

❓ What hobbies do you enjoy? 🎙️I try to get outdoors when I can, especially with my family. Working on the tree house or other outdoor play structures like slides and ziplines. I enjoy hiking and skiing. I also enjoy pottery when I can find time. More: buff.ly/8TN0BhK

Tune into CosmoQuest After Hours tomorrow at 11am MST/2pm EDT to hear PSI's Jenny Larson, a researcher and cosplayer, talk about using her creativity to deliver real science to science fiction/fantasy audiences: buff.ly/stcZani

#JunoCam: A family portrait of three of the Galilean moons shown appox. to scale: Ganymede, Europa and Io. 🧪 🔭 Interested in processing your own JunoCam images? Visit buff.ly/dCAW6H0 📸: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt / Thomas Thomopoulos

Read about how PSI helped find possible evidence for past life on Mars: buff.ly/r25b3k2 🧪 🔭

PSI in the News: The exoplanet revolution at 30: 1st alien world was found around a sun-like star three decades ago Read the Space.com story featuring PSI Director Amanda Hendrix: buff.ly/D31IMZR

On the right is PSI Senior Scientist Pamela Gay’s guest badge for MagicCon: Atlanta, where she spent the weekend talking planetary science, Magic the Gathering & inclusion. For the conference, she designed a Curiosity rover playing card. Read more: buff.ly/gVX8HgM

PSI Senior Scientist Kirby Runyon and PSI Director Amanda Hendrix are just two of several PSI scientists in Washington, D.C. today for a day of action to #SaveNASAScience Learn more: buff.ly/rt4OWDV

PSI's Larry Lebofsky celebrated International Observe the Moon Night on Saturday with his neighbors! For an hour and a half, 16 people came by to view both the Moon and Saturn (and its moon Titan in the third picture). His wife Nancy pointed out constellations and shared their stories.

This week's edition of our newsletter features MOONS in honor of tonight's full moon! 🌕 Tonight's moon is also a supermoon, meaning it's as close as it can get to Earth in its orbit, making it appear slightly larger than usual. The full moon peaks at 8:47pm Az time (11:47 EST).

Happy International Observe the Moon Night! ✨🌖✨ Make sure to get out tonight & look up! buff.ly/TbXSoE5 📸: NASA SVS

100 Hours of Astronomy kicks off TOMORROW! PSI's Pamela Gay will participate in the global celebration. It invites people to connect with the night sky and the science that helps us understand it. She goes live @ 7am MST to talk about Pluto and answer Qs: buff.ly/FKRAIf7

Happy Friday! 🪐 🐾 This week’s #PlanetaryPet is always-curious Haimar Zubeldia, named after the famous Spanish cyclist. As PSI’s Alan Fischer notes, “Haimar and his pal Dracula (in background) don’t seem to understand that good kitties do not belong on the table.”

#ClarkVision: ✨ The galaxy rises over Bryce Canyon National Park one spring morning in 2020 📸: Roger Clark

PSI in the News: NASA canceled a moon rover mission last year. Suddenly, it's back. Read the Mashable story here:

#JunoCam: Jupiter in fall colors. 🍂 🎃 Interested in processing your own JunoCam images? Visit buff.ly/dCAW6H0 📸: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Dawson20

“In order to create those fractures (seen on Ariel's surface), you have to have either a really thin ice on a really big ocean, or a higher eccentricity and a smaller ocean. But either way, we need an ocean to be able to create the fractures that we are seeing on Ariel’s surface.”🧪🔭 buff.ly/S0y6BDN

"I was always interested in science and as a small kid who was in and out of hospitals all the time, I thought I’d do something in medicine. But when I was about nine years old my older brother showed me Saturn through his telescope and in that moment I was utterly won over to planetary science."

#SciArt: PSI's Cathy Weitz painted this watercolor image of the Hubble Space Telescope with one of it's own photos painted behind it.👩‍🔬🎨 Did you know? Hubble orbits the Earth in just 95 mins! Learn more about the telescope that forever changed our view of the cosmos: buff.ly/NJqgjH8

Advocacy in action! PSI Director Amanda Hendrix met with Senator Mark Kelly in D.C. today to talk about the importance of funding science, science education, not canceling missions and avoiding a shutdown.

PSI in the News: Scientist, former UWGB professor shares thoughts on first female-led NASA astronaut class 🧪 🔭 Watch/Read: buff.ly/wyUMro4

PSI in the News: “Because this crater formed in water and it was buried by sediments in the water immediately after it formed, the whole thing is preserved.” Said PSI's Matt Huber. Read the story:

#JunoCam: Do you know why PSI regularly shares JunoCam images? The project is led by PSI's Candy Hansen-Koharcheck. The visible light camera was added to the probe primarily for participatory science and outreach. 📸: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Jackie Branc

Rob Skarbek, who was recently promoted to PSI Senior Scientist, studies rock and ice friction, fault mechanics and compaction of porous media.

PSI Colorado held a send-off party at José O’Shea’s for Bella Mueller, who is returning to Caltech after nearly a year and a half working as an intern in our office. She will be sorely missed, but we expect her to visit on trips home from school!