---
title: "Planetary Scientist"
description: "Studies the planets, moons, asteroids and comets of the solar system using spacecraft data, telescopes, meteorites and lab experiments."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/planetary-scientist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Planetary Scientist

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-2042 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-2042.00

Studies the planets, moons, asteroids and comets of the solar system using spacecraft data, telescopes, meteorites and lab experiments.

Also advertised as: Planetary Geologist; Planetary Geoscientist; Lunar Scientist; Planetary Researcher; Space Scientist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $101,920 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $49.00/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $59,330 to $200,230, with the middle half between $75,110 and $139,380
- **Total US employment:** 23,470
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 38/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 23,470 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $59,330 |
| 25th | $75,110 |
| 50th (median) | $101,920 |
| 75th | $139,380 |
| 90th | $200,230 |
| Mean (average) | $116,150 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| TX | $145,220 | $149,623 | 4,900 |
| RI | $121,010 | $118,312 | Not published by BLS |
| OK | $119,990 | $136,596 | 770 |
| CO | $114,410 | $111,022 | 1,480 |
| MS | $112,400 | $129,265 | 250 |
| MD | $110,510 | $105,289 | 390 |
| MA | $108,210 | $102,319 | 420 |
| AK | $107,410 | $104,935 | 430 |
| CA | $106,500 | $96,189 | 3,350 |
| HI | $106,270 | $96,652 | 110 |
| WA | $105,020 | $98,138 | 840 |
| NH | $101,150 | $97,106 | Not published by BLS |
| NV | $99,890 | $99,911 | 520 |
| OR | $98,110 | $94,920 | 380 |
| IL | $96,950 | $96,991 | 410 |

35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/planetary-scientist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/planetary-scientist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 25,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 26,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,300 jobs, or +5.1%. Faster than average: 5.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 48.2% |
| Master's Degree | 37.0% |
| Doctoral Degree | 7.4% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 3.7% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 3.7% |

## What the work involves

- Analyze images and spectra from orbiters, landers and rovers
- Map geologic features on planetary surfaces
- Examine meteorites and returned samples in the laboratory
- Build models of planetary interiors, surfaces or atmospheres
- Write research proposals to NASA science programs
- Help plan observations and rover activities on mission teams
- Publish findings and present at scientific conferences

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Geography — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Physics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 7.00 |
| R — Realistic | 5.83 |
| C — Conventional | 4.16 |
| A — Artistic | 3.64 |
| S — Social | 2.24 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.65 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INTJ | 87.0 |
| ISTP | 85.0 |
| INTP | 80.1 |
| ISTJ | 78.0 |
| ISFP | 57.8 |

Best-fitting types: INTJ, ISTP. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Geoscientist, Except Hydrologists and Geographers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geoscientist) — median $101,920
- [Hydrologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydrologist) — median $96,600
- [Industrial Ecologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-ecologist) — median $82,220
- [Conservation Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/conservation-scientist) — median $73,010
- [Soil and Plant Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/soil-and-plant-scientist) — median $78,850
- [Geographer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geographer) — median $102,040
- [Mining and Geological Engineer, Including Mining Safety Engineers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mining-and-geological-engineer) — median $106,220
- [Biologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biologist) — median $98,920
- [Data Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-scientist) — median $120,230
- [Environmental Scientist and Specialist, Including Health](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-scientist-and-specialist) — median $82,220

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/planetary-scientist