20 May 2020
Twisted feature could be the first direct evidence of a baby planet being born
... for their gravity to shape them into spheres, spawning the creation of a planet, dwarf planet or large moon. The presence in a disk is marked by a spiral, formed when a baby planet has ‘kicked’ the gas as it orbits around its evolving host star...
01 June 2018
Largest discovery of trans-Neptunian objects released
...this size. A trans-Neptunian object (TNO) is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater ...gravity of Neptune or the other outer planets. Eris, which is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System is an SDO....
17 May 2019
First science results released on Ultima Thule
...of primitive icy material thought to be the building blocks of planets. Ultima Thule is a typical example of a “cold classical... on the large, dark red equatorial region of this dwarf planet informally called Cthulhu. It has been proposed that Pluto ...
14 July 2015
Gazing on Pluto’s “heart” with NASA: from Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes to planetary terrain analysis on New Horizons’ historic flyby
... launch velocity, has arrived at Pluto and taken stunning, high-resolution images of the dwarf planet already unofficially dubbed The Other Red Planet. The mission has been a startling reminder of how we still know very little about...
12 June 2020
New Horizon breaks record with first interstellar parallax experiment
... giving scientists back on Earth an unprecedented view of this enigmatic dwarf planet with an icy heart. It was also the first mission to ...explore the Kuiper Belt – the region beyond the giant planets also referred to as the “third zone” – when it ...
16 July 2015
Geologically active Pluto and Charon: Young mountains between Tombaugh Regio and Cthulhu Regio, ‘Mordor’ at Charon’s North Pole
... plenty of new things we already know after beginning to analyze the data from New Horizons’ historic flyby of dwarf planet Pluto. One is particularly startling. Pluto appears to be geologically active. A detailed close-up shows an icy mountain range...
