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TAG RESULTS: pluto
Tour the solar system: Pluto and the Kuiper Belt
Monday, August 10, 2015 | by Richard Talcott
Get the details on this oddball planet that the New Horizons spacecraft is revealing like never before, and learn about the various other worlds beyond Neptune that later influenced Pluto's planetary status.
MORE ABOUT: PLUTO, KUIPER BELT
The Real Reality Show: Is Pluto a Planet?
Monday, August 3, 2015
With the recent New Horizons flyby, it's time to reassess the distant world's planetary status.
MORE ABOUT: PLUTO
New Horizons team finds haze, flowing ice on Pluto
Friday, July 24, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
Just 10 days after closest approach, the distant world is showing a diversity of planetary geology that has mission scientists thrilled.
New Horizons finds second mountain range in Pluto’s “heart”
Wednesday, July 22, 2015 | by NASA
The heights of these mountains are comparable to those found in the U.S. Appalachian range.
New Horizons captures two of Pluto's smaller moons
Tuesday, July 21, 2015 | by NASA
As more data on Nix and Hydra come back from the spacecraft, scientists will be able to make more detailed findings on these moons' surface characteristics and other properties.
Pluto’s icy plains, pits, and mountains take shape in Tombaugh Regio
Friday, July 17, 2015 | by Eric Betz
New views of Tombaugh Regio, Pluto’s icy heart, provide still more evidence of a geologically rich world.
The Pluto system: An icy wonderland revealed
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 | by Richard Talcott
The first close-approach images from New Horizons are out, and they are spectacular. Both Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, have far younger surfaces than scientists expected. Pluto has mountains made of water ice and is, in the words of Principal ...
Pluto’s bright heart and Charon’s dark spot revealed in HD
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 | by Eric Betz
New Horizons’ first high-resolution images of Pluto are giving astronomers insight into the dwarf world’s complex ice geology.
New Horizons' miraculous timing: A portrait 25 years in the making
Tuesday, July 14, 2015 | by Eric Betz
To frame Pluto behind Charon, NASA’s first mission to Pluto had to arrive exactly 50 years after the first flyby of Mars.
NASA's three-billion-mile journey to Pluto reaches historic encounter
Tuesday, July 14, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
New Horizons made closest approach to the distant world at 7:50 a.m. EDT this morning.
Live coverage: New Horizons' historic Pluto flyby
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Twenty-five years in the making, this close-up examination of the Pluto system represents the capstone of the first era of planet reconnaissance.
Phoning home from Pluto: What to expect from New Horizons this week
Monday, July 13, 2015 | by Karri Ferron
At around 7:50 a.m. EDT tomorrow, New Horizons will officially make history as it makes its closest approach to Pluto, opening a whole new realm of solar system exploration. But what can we expect here on planet Earth, some 3 billion miles (5 billion...
Pluto comes into focus
Monday, July 13, 2015 | by Richard Talcott
In advance of the flyby, New Horizons has already refined the dwarf planet’s size and detected nitrogen escaping from its atmosphere.
How big is Pluto? New Horizons settles decades-long debate
Monday, July 13, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
Based on the most recent data, Pluto is actually larger than previous conservative estimates, making it the largest of all known solar system objects beyond Neptune.
Get ready for the New Horizons flyby with Pluto Safari
Monday, July 13, 2015 | by Eric Betz
The free interactive app from Simulation Curriculum puts Pluto fans front and center for New Horizons' historic encounter.
MORE ABOUT: PLUTO, NEW HORIZONS
New Horizons’ date with destiny
Monday, July 13, 2015 | by Richard Talcott
In less than 24 hours, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will sweep within 7,770 miles (12,500 kilometers) of Pluto’s surface. The event, which culminates a 9.5-year flight and 25 years’ worth of effort by planetary scientists, will co...
This lab grows Pluto's ices so New Horizons knows what it's looking at
Monday, July 13, 2015 | by Eric Betz
When New Horizons zips past Pluto and Charon tomorrow, scientists will interpret the worlds based on earthly ice samples grown in this laboratory.
New Horizons' last portrait of Pluto's puzzling spots
Sunday, July 12, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
While composition and color data still need to be downlinked, this hemisphere will be invisible to New Horizons during the July 14 flyby.
New image of Pluto: "Houston, we have geology"
Saturday, July 11, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
Among the structures tentatively identified in this new image are what appear to be polygonal features, a complex band of terrain stretching east-northeast across the planet, and a complex region where bright terrains meet the dark terrains of the "whale."
Looking back before peering ahead: Pluto, an interactive timeline
Friday, July 10, 2015
As New Horizons' journey culminates in the July 14 Pluto flyby, explore how a search for Planet X over a century ago lead scientists on a wild ride of dwarf planet discovery.
Pluto and Charon: New Horizons’ Dynamic Duo
Friday, July 10, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
The two worlds orbit the same gravitational point, but their similarities seem to end there.
A "heart" from Pluto as flyby begins
Thursday, July 9, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
The New Horizons mission has officially begun the flyby sequence of science observations that will culminate with closest approach July 14.
New Horizons map of Pluto: The whale and the doughnut
Wednesday, July 8, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
While the new maps gives mission scientists an important tool for deciphering the patterns of bright and dark markings on the distant planet's surface, they are holding off on making any interpretations of features for now.
Pluto dark spots continue to intrigue
Tuesday, July 7, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
These regularly spaced patches are each hundreds of miles across.
New Horizons sets its sights on Pluto flyby
Tuesday, July 7, 2015 | by S. Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator
Twenty-five years in the making, the spacecraft is now days away from the distant world.
Pluto: The "other" red planet
Monday, July 6, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
Pluto’s reddish color has been known for decades, but New Horizons is now allowing scientists to correlate the color of different places on the surface with their geology and soon with their compositions.
NASA's New Horizons to return to normal science operations after spacecraft anomaly
Monday, July 6, 2015 | by NASA
Preparations are ongoing to resume the originally planned science operations July 7 and to conduct the entire close flyby sequence as planned.
Astronomical artistic license: 40 years of Pluto portaits
Monday, July 6, 2015 | by Eric Betz
For decades, artists have had to use their imaginations to paint distant Pluto as more than just a cold, distant point of light. Here's a look back at some of the best illustrations before New Horizons throws them all out the window.
Before New Horizons, one telescope started it all
Friday, July 3, 2015 | by Kevin Schindler, Lowell Observatory
Astronomers failed to bag Planet X for 25 years. Clyde Tombaugh couldn’t have found it without this incredible homemade instrument.
Spots on Pluto fascinate as New Horizons gets the all clear
Thursday, July 2, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
Not finding new moons or rings is a bit of a scientific surprise, but as a result, no engine burn is needed to steer clear of potential hazards.
New Horizons is about to pass Pluto at 9 miles per second. Why won't it stop?
Wednesday, July 1, 2015 | by Will Grundy, Lowell Observatory
Mission co-investigator Will Grundy says the light and fast spacecraft would have needed a lot more fuel to slow down upon reaching the outer solar system.
Hunt the last planet
Tuesday, June 30, 2015 | by Richard Talcott
While Pluto takes center stage with New Horizons’ arrival, backyard observers can get their own glimpse of this enigmatic world.
MORE ABOUT: PLUTO
New Horizons sees Pluto’s “bright fringe,” Charon’s “dark pole”
Tuesday, June 30, 2015 | by NASA
Scientists on the New Horizons team have found that the “close approach hemisphere” on Pluto has the greatest variety of terrain types seen on the planet so far.
Postage for Pluto: A 29-cent stamp pissed off scientists so much they tacked it to New Horizons
Friday, June 26, 2015 | by Eric Betz
How much does shipping cost to the Kuiper Belt? Apparently, if you go via the U.S. Postal Service, it’s just 29 cents. The 1991 stamp designed by longtime Astronomy magazine contributor Ron Miller is among the nine earthly mementos New Horizon...
PlutoTown, USA: Where Pluto is, and always will be, a planet
Thursday, June 25, 2015 | by Kevin Schindler, Lowell Observatory
Clyde Tombaugh discovered the ninth planet in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1930, and the find is still a badge of honor.
How'd we get New Horizons? You can thank the Pluto Underground
Wednesday, June 24, 2015 | by Eric Betz
Twelve idealistic young scientists met in a Baltimore Italian restaurant and cooked up a plan that convinced NASA to put Pluto on the front burner.
Why didn't Voyager visit Pluto?
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 | by Eric Betz
NASA once planned to send Voyager past the last planet. Alan Stern and the New Horizons team are happy they didn’t.
Different faces of Pluto emerging in new images from New Horizons
Tuesday, June 16, 2015 | by NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
The photos show an increasingly complex surface with clear evidence of discrete equatorial bright and dark regions.
1992 QB1: The first Kuiper Belt object opened a realm of 1,000 Plutos
Monday, June 15, 2015 | by Eric Betz
It's now common knowledge that comets and icy dwarf planets lurk at the solar system frontier, but 25 years ago the topic was highly controversial.
Two Plutos collide in the outer solar system. What are the odds?
Thursday, June 11, 2015 | by Eric Betz
Not long after Pluto’s moon Charon was discovered, astronomers realized it would take hundreds or thousands of small planets to make such a planetary smash-up likely.
Captive worlds: Is Neptune’s moon Triton a kidnapped Pluto?
Wednesday, June 10, 2015 | by Eric Betz
Some of the earliest direct evidence that Pluto wasn’t alone came from an icy moon with a strange orbit.
An interview with Jim Christy: How "defective" images revealed Pluto as a double planet
Tuesday, June 9, 2015 | by Eric Betz
Charon’s discoverer says when he first spotted a blob on Pluto’s side in 1978, he thought there’d been an explosion on the planet.
Hubble finds two chaotically tumbling Pluto moons
Thursday, June 4, 2015 | by STScl, Baltimore, Maryland
A comprehensive analysis of all available Hubble Space Telescope data shows that Nix and Hydra are wobbling unpredictably.
How a flying telescope proved Pluto has an atmosphere
Wednesday, June 3, 2015 | by Kevin Schindler, Lowell Observatory
Later this month, NASA’s observatory in an airplane, SOFIA, will repeat the flight that confirmed Pluto’s atmosphere nearly 30 years ago.
The Kuiper Belt by any other name is just as cool
Tuesday, June 2, 2015 | by Eric Betz
Scientists have a tendency to name things after people who weren’t the first to think of them, and Pluto’s neighborhood is no exception.
A much expected journey: How Pluto became a giant among the dwarfs
Monday, June 1, 2015 | by Eric Betz
“In the little cluster of orbs which scampers across the sidereal abyss under the name of the solar system there are, be it known, nine instead of a mere eight, worlds,” so came the announcement from Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizo...
New Horizons sees more detail as it draws closer to Pluto
Thursday, May 28, 2015 | by NASA
The new images reveal more detail about Pluto's complex and high-contrast surface.
Remembering Clyde Tombaugh on Pluto's doorstep
Tuesday, May 26, 2015 | by David J. Eicher
Clyde Tombaugh is best known for finding Pluto, but he's also remembered for the inspiration and friendship he offered to many young scientists.
If my dog Pluto were sitting on that planet July 14, would he be likely to catch a glimpse of New Horizons as it zooms by?
Monday, May 25, 2015
John Cawley III, Goodview, Virginia
MORE ABOUT: PLUTO, NEW HORIZONS
Web Extra: Pluto probe promises spectacular surprises
Monday, May 25, 2015 | by Richard Talcott
A faint ball of subtle features when viewed from Earth, Pluto will sharpen to crystal clarity when New Horizons flies past in July.
MORE ABOUT: PLUTO, NEW HORIZONS
Naming Pluto: Strange suggestions for a "dark, gloomy planet"
Friday, May 22, 2015 | by Kevin Schindler, Lowell Observatory
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will finally reveal Pluto this summer, and while its place in the public’s heart was cemented long ago, the planet’s seemingly perfect name wasn’t always the clear choice. On May 1, 1930, Lowell Obser...
MORE ABOUT: #YEAROFPLUTO, PLUTO
Want to discover Planet X? You'll need these three tools
Wednesday, May 20, 2015 | by Kevin Schindler, Lowell Observatory
Lowell Observatory’s intermittent 25-year search for a trans-Neptunian planet incorporated a variety of instruments before finally netting Pluto. Some were highly specialized commercial devices, while others were modified mechanisms designed an...
Young Clyde Tombaugh: How a Midwestern farmboy set a course for Pluto
Monday, May 18, 2015 | by Kevin Schindler, Lowell Observatory
On a spring day in 2007, buses of students and area residents descended on the Streator Township High School auditorium in Streator, Illinois, to hear about the exploits of the community’s favorite son who had died a decade earlier. Throughout ...
Percival Lowell's three early searches for Planet X
Thursday, May 14, 2015 | by Kevin Schindler
Clyde Tombaugh’s February 18, 1930, discovery of Pluto concluded a three-stage search at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, spanning 25 years. What started with Percival Lowell’s musings about a theoretical ninth planet led to math...
Year of Pluto series explores humanity's long journey to the solar system frontier
Thursday, May 14, 2015 | by Eric Betz
Follow along as Astronomy relives the strange stories that took us from Planet X to the Kuiper Belt.
NASA’s New Horizons spots Pluto’s faintest known moons
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 | by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Now the spacecraft will begin its first search for new moons or rings that might threaten its passage through the Pluto system.
NASA's New Horizons detects Pluto surface features, including possible polar cap
Wednesday, April 29, 2015 | by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
Scientists interpreted the latest image data to reveal that the dwarf planet has broad surface markings – some bright, some dark – including a bright area at one pole that may be a polar cap.
NASA’s New Horizons nears historic encounter with Pluto
Friday, April 17, 2015 | by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
In an unprecedented flyby this July, our knowledge of what the Pluto system is really like will expand exponentially.
Public asked to help name features on Pluto
Friday, March 20, 2015 | by SETI Institute, Mountain View, California
New Horizons’ flyby past Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, will transform them from poorly seen hazy bodies to tangible worlds with distinct features.
Alan Stern: New Horizons and Pluto
Monday, March 9, 2015
The planetary scientist and head of the New Horizons mission previews the historic Pluto flyby this summer, explains why the IAU got the definition of a planet wrong, and shares how he and his colleagues are trying to widen space research funding.
New Horizons returns new images of Pluto
Wednesday, February 4, 2015 | by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland
These are the first photos of the Pluto system for the spacecraft's optical navigation phase of the mission.
New Horizons begins first stages of Pluto encounter
Friday, January 16, 2015 | by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
The “optical navigation” campaign that starts January 25 will mark the first time pictures from the spacecraft will be used to help pinpoint Pluto’s location.
Web Extra: A historic encounter with Pluto
Monday, December 29, 2014 | by Richard Talcott
Pluto is the brightest member of the Kuiper Belt — a large reservoir of icy bodies beyond Neptune — and the first to receive a close-up look when New Horizons arrives in July.
MORE ABOUT: PLUTO, KUIPTER BELT
On Pluto’s doorstep, NASA’s New Horizon’s spacecraft awakens for encounter
Monday, December 8, 2014 | by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
The spacecraft will begin observing the distant dwarf planet January 15 and fly by Pluto in July.
Should Pluto Be Considered a Planet?
Monday, September 1, 2014
Pluto’s planetary death blow came August 24, 2006, at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union.
New Horizons spacecraft crosses Neptune orbit en route to historic Pluto encounter
Tuesday, August 26, 2014 | by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
This is its last major crossing en route to becoming the first probe to make a close encounter with distant Pluto on July 14, 2015.
ALMA pinpoints Pluto to help guide NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft
Thursday, August 7, 2014 | by NRAO, Charlottesville, VA
Observed for decades with ever-larger optical telescopes on Earth and in space, astronomers are still working out Pluto’s exact position and path around our solar system.
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