Pluto
A New Mission To Pluto Could Answer the Questions Raised by New Horizons
Pluto may have been downgraded from full-planet status, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hold a special place in scientist's…
Landing on Pluto May Only Be A Hop Skip and Jump Away
There are plenty of crazy ideas for missions in the space exploration community. Some are just better funded than others.…
Pluto Has an Ocean of Liquid Water Surrounded by a 40-80 km Ice Shell
On July 14th, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft conducted the first-ever flyby of Pluto, which once was (and to many,…
How Did Pluto Get Its Heart? Scientists Suggest an Answer
The most recognizable feature on Pluto is its "heart," a relatively bright valentine-shaped area known as Tombaugh Regio. How that…
Should We Send Humans to Pluto?
Universe Today has examined the potential for sending humans to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, the planet Venus, and Saturn’s largest…
An Unusual Crater on Pluto Might be a Supervolcano
Pluto with a super-cryovolcano? Why not! All the elements are there, just not in the way we normally think of…
Freezing Ocean Might Not Be Responsible for Cryovolcanic Flows on Pluto’s Moon, Charon
In a recent study scheduled to be published in the journal Icarus in March 2023, a team of researchers led…
Will Pluto finally answer, ‘Are we alone?’
We previously examined how Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, could answer the longstanding question: Are we alone? With its nitrogen geysers…
Charon’s Red Cap at its North Pole? We Might Have an Answer
Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, started off as a beautiful, smooth red grape until someone came along, mostly peeled it, tried…
Eight Missions are Getting Extensions, Most Exciting: OSIRIS-REx is Going to Asteroid Apophis
NASA has granted mission extensions to eight different planetary missions, citing the continued excellent operations of the spacecraft, but more…