Pluto
Pluto Team Updates Science From the Solar System’s Edge
Nearly eight years after its historic Pluto flyby, NASA's New Horizons probe is getting ready for another round of observations…
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…
Pluto’s Surface was Shaped by Ice Volcanoes
For all of Earth's geological diversity and its long history, the planet has never had ice volcanoes. But Pluto has.…
Now We Know Why Pluto has These Strange Features on its Surface
After New Horizons made its close flyby of Pluto in July of 2015, scientists were astounded at the incredible closeup…
New Horizons is Now 50 Astronomical Units Away From the Sun
As the New Horizons spacecraft hurtles out towards interstellar space, it has now reached an historical milestone. On April 17,…
Oumuamua is Probably Very Similar to Pluto, Just From Another Star System
In 2017, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) made history with the detection of a mysterious object…
Pluto has Snowcapped Mountains, But Why?
We can thank NASA's New Horizons spacecraft for opening our eyes up to Pluto's complexity. On July 14th, 2015, the…
Sunrises Across the Solar System
Scientists have learned a lot about the atmospheres on various worlds in our Solar System simply from planetary sunrises or…
Pluto and Other Kuiper Belt Objects Started Out With Water Oceans, and Have Been Slowly Freezing Solid for Billions of Years
It seems unlikely that an ocean could persist on a world that never gets closer than 30 astronomical units from…