Pluto

Pluto

March 12, 2012

Pluto, long considered to be planet number nine, has been relegated to dwarf status, but that does not change its significance in our galaxy. A great deal of time and study has been devoted to the former planet. Here on Universe Today we have written a few dozen articles on the dwarf planet. Our goals [...]

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Help Support a ‘New Horizons’ U.S. Postage Stamp!

February 1, 2012

Today the New Horizons mission team, along with Principal Investigator Alan Stern have unveiled their proposal for a U.S Postage stamp, to honor the first mission to Pluto. The current concept art for the stamp was done by Dan Durda, a space scientist and artist at The Southwest Research Institute. Durda’s work has appeared on [...]

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Why Pluto is No Longer a Planet

January 5, 2012

This article was originally written in 2008, but we created a cool video to go along with it yesterday Let’s find out why Pluto is no longer considered a planet. Pluto was first discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff Arizona. Astronomers had long predicted that there would be [...]

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2011: Top Stories from the Best Year Ever for NASA Planetary Science!

December 31, 2011

A year ago, 2011 was proclaimed as the “Year of the Solar System” by NASA’s Planetary Science division. And what a year of excitement it was indeed for the planetary science community, amateur astronomers and the general public alike ! NASA successfully delivered astounding results on all fronts – On the Story of How We [...]

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Dr. Alan Stern Answers Your Questions!

December 27, 2011

Some of you may know, we recently launched a new “Ask” feature here at Universe Today. Our inaugural launch features Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator for the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. We collected your questions in our initial post and passed them along to Dr. Stern who graciously took the [...]

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Have Complex Molecules Been Found on Pluto’s Surface?

December 22, 2011

First there was the recent story about evidence for a possible subsurface ocean on Pluto, of all places. Now there is a new report regarding evidence for complex molecules on its surface, from scientists at Southwest Research Institute and Nebraska Wesleyan University. Little enigmatic Pluto is starting to get even more interesting…

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Ask Dr. Alan Stern

December 16, 2011

We’re testing a new “Ask” article format here at Universe Today and we know you’ve got a question you’d like to ask Alan Stern! Here’s how it works: Readers can submit questions they would like Universe Today to ask the guest responder. Simply post your question in the comments section of this article. We’ll take [...]

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NASA’s Pluto Probe Marks a New Milestone

December 2, 2011

It may not have noticed anything different as it continued its high-speed trek through interplanetary space, but today New Horizons passed a new milestone: it is now (and will be for quite some time) the closest spacecraft ever to Pluto! This breaks the previous record held by Voyager 1, which came within 983 million miles [...]

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Does Pluto Have a Hidden Ocean?

November 23, 2011

In recent years, it has become surprisingly apparent that, contrary to previous belief, Earth is not the only place in the solar system with liquid water. Jupiter’s moon Europa, and possibly others, are now thought to have a deep ocean below the icy crust and even subsurface lakes within the crust itself, between the ocean [...]

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Does The Pluto System Pose A Threat To New Horizons?

November 9, 2011

With nearly two-thirds of its journey complete, the New Horizons spacecraft is still alive and well. It recently experienced a “hibernation wakeup” which started on November 5th and will last until November 15th… and it will sleep again until a month-long call in January. However, the real “wakeup call” may be when it reaches the [...]

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Are Pluto and Eris Twins?

October 26, 2011

Back a couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article highlighting the debate between scientists on which dwarf planet is bigger, Pluto or Eris. During a planetary science conference earlier this month in France, word “leaked” out that Eris was still more massive, but likely smaller in diameter. Today, the latest findings were published in [...]

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Pluto or Eris: Which is Bigger?

October 14, 2011

The controversy between Pluto and Eris regarding their status as “largest dwarf planet” continues. During a joint meeting of the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences and the European Planetary Science Congress last week in Nantes, France, new data was presented that may help settle the debate. The new findings regarding this size of [...]

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“Pluto-Killer” Sets Sights on Neptune

September 18, 2011

The confessed (and remorseless) “Pluto Killer” Mike Brown has turned his gaze – and the 10-meter telescope at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii – on Neptune, our solar system’s furthest “official” planet. But no worries for Neptune – Mike isn’t after its planetary status… he’s taken some beautiful infrared images instead!

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Ring System Around Pluto?

August 9, 2011

With the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Pluto, there may be an intriguing additional task for the mission’s science team: look for a potential ring around Pluto and its moons. Researchers at The Universidade Estadual Paulista in Brazil have recently submitted a paper for publication in which they explore the possibility of a [...]

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Hubble Telescope Spots Another Moon Around Pluto

July 20, 2011

From a NASA press release: Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a fourth moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The tiny, new satellite – temporarily designated P4 — was uncovered in a Hubble survey searching for rings around the dwarf planet.

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Double Occultations This Week Will Reveal More Details About Pluto

June 23, 2011

Several teams of astronomers are taking advantage of a rare double event this week to learn more about the atmosphere and makeup of Pluto and its moons. The dwarf planet will occult, or pass in front of two different stars this week. One of the best viewing sites for these two events is in Hawaii, [...]

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More Surprises From Pluto

April 24, 2011

Ah, Pluto. Seems every time we think we’ve got it figured out, it has a new surprise to throw at us.

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New Hit Single: “Pluto the Previous Planet”

April 6, 2011

Pluto, the previous planet from carolune on Vimeo. I see the folks attending the third .astronomy (dotastronomy) conference this year have been busy — hacking away and creating all sorts of ingenious tools, websites and … songs. Here’s astronomer Amanda Bauer and her band of renown with their new song, “Pluto the Previous Planet.”

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Clyde Tombaugh’s Ten Special Commandments for Planet Hunters

April 6, 2011

Back in 1989, amateur astronomer Toney Burkhart found out that Clyde Tombaugh was going to be giving a talk in San Francisco, just a short distance from Burkhart’s home. Trouble was, he found out only about 10 minutes before the presentation was going to start, so he rushed over and arrived just in time to [...]

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New Horizons Flies by Uranus

March 18, 2011

The Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft will fly by another planet today (March 18, 2011). However, the robotic craft won’t be taking any images as it zooms past Uranus’ orbit at about 6 p.m. EDT, 3.8 billion kilometers (2.4 billion miles) away from the gas giant (and 2.0 billion km (1.8 billion miles) from Earth). New [...]

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