Ana Swanson on the greatest threat of planetary extinction that we’re all not talking about. Daniel Oberhaus on the underfunded, disorganized plan to save Earth from the next giant asteroid. Caleb Scharf on life beyond the pale blue dot: Our own oasis of life in the cosmos is blue, but will others be? Rob Beschizza on the flag we’ll use to colonize the galaxy. What’s behind the dream of colonizing Mars? Elizabeth Kolbert on Project Exodus. Thomas Levenson on Pluto’s misbehaving moons: These two chaotic bodies engage a mystery as old as human fascination with the motions of the heavens. The New Horizons Pluto mission is a big deal — here are 7 reasons why. Dennis Overbye on reaching Pluto, and the end of an era of planetary exploration. David W. Brown on the dark future of American space exploration: NASA’s golden age is about to come to a thudding halt. Margaret Lazarus Dean mourns the loss of the space shuttle, NASA’s 40-year embarrassment (and more and more).
