NASA’s Pluto Probe Could Lose 2 Key Instruments at a Crucial Moment
An iconic NASA probe is currently around 6 billion miles (9.7 billion kilometers) away from Earth, returning data…
WHAT’S UP IN THE SKY: When dust gets in your skies | Astronomy
Today: Every star rotates. Our Sun takes a little less than one Earth month to rotate once on…
RTÉ Archives | Environment | Planet Pluto
The greatest astronomers in the world are discussing whether Pluto should be declassified as a planet. Astronomers from…
Pluto’s Famous Glacial Heart Has Been Secretly Leaking Liquid Nitrogen
Odd surface patterns on Pluto hinted to astronomers that, sometime in the past—quite possibly not that long ago—liquid…
Scientists Find Evidence of Liquid Nitrogen Beneath Pluto’s Heart
One of Pluto’s most striking landmarks is Sputnik Planitia, a massive glacier filled with frozen nitrogen ice. It…
Pluto’s Atmosphere May Finally Be Starting to Collapse
Pluto’s orbit around the Sun is a long, elliptical journey that lasts 248 Earth years. Right now, Pluto…
Scientists Found Giant Landslides On Pluto Big Enough To Cover A Small City
Artistic rendering of Pluto and the Sun. Credit: Wikimedia Commons Pluto, once seen as a frozen dot at…
Pluto’s moon Charon may have once spun once every 14 hours, and its ancient mountains still record how it slowed down |
For decades, Charon was often viewed as the quieter half of the Pluto system, a frozen world marked…
11 Years After Historic Flyby, Scientists Discover Giant Landslides on Pluto
In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft gave us our first look at Pluto’s surface in spectacular detail.…
Pluto’s Moon Charon Shows Signs Of “Despinning”, New Study Finds
New research reveals that Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, once spun far faster than it does today. Scientists have…
NASA’s New Horizons Wakes Up From Hibernation Beyond Pluto, More Than 10 Billion Kilometers from Earth
Artist’s rendering of the New Horizons spacecraft approaching Pluto and its three moons. Credit: NASA. Whomst has awakened…
NASA’s New Horizons probe awakens after long hibernation near Pluto
The New Horizons probe has awakened after hibernating for nearly a year, billions of miles into deep space,…