kuiper belt
The Kuiper Belt is Much Bigger Than We Thought
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is just over 8.8 billion km away, exploring the Kuiper Belt. This icy belt surrounds the…
How Many Planets Could Be in the Kuiper Belt?
A recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters investigates the potential existence of Mars-sized free-floating planets (FFPs)—also known as…
Under Some Conditions, Comets Could Deliver Organic Molecules to Planets
New research shows how comets could deliver the building blocks for life in systems with close-orbiting planets, aiding in the…
JWST Observes the Kuiper Belt: Sedna, Gonggong, and Quaoar
Using data acquired by the JWST, an international team of planetary scientists have revealed new insights about some of the…
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…
The Universe is Brighter Than we Thought
At the edge of the Solar System, New Horizons has taken new light measurements of the cosmos to get a…
A Newly-Discovered (Almost) Dwarf Planet Will Come Surprisingly Close in 2031
It’s good to remember how little we know about the outer solar system. Humans only really began observing it within…
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,…
Comets Already Grow a Coma out in the Kuiper Belt
Just when do comets get their signature coma? Conventional wisdom says it only happens when they get close enough to…
New Horizons Saw the Universe With Even Less Light Pollution than Hubble’s View
A new study based on New Horizons data has conducted the most accurate measurements of the Universe's background light to…