20 March 2017
Scientists challenge how planets are defined
...a moon for that matter? Controversy surrounding the downgrading of Pluto’s status to that of a dwarf planet has never really subsided... one scientist is determined to change how we think about Pluto and other small bodies such as Europa by redefining what ...
27 April 2016
Dwarf planet MakeMake found to have a moon
..., but it believed to contain many comets, asteroids, and other small bodies made largely of ice. Indeed both Pluto and MakeMake are already known to be covered in frozen methane. Preliminary estimates of the moon indicate that it is in a circular...
12 June 2020
New Horizon breaks record with first interstellar parallax experiment
...through the Solar System. It was the first probe to observe Pluto up close, giving scientists back on Earth an unprecedented view of ... Arrokoth (Powhatan/Algonquian for "sky”) than it did to Pluto on 1 January, 2019. Now, from its unique vantage point...
13 March 2020
Over 100 new minor planets found in new astronomical survey
...Makemake, Gonggong and Eris, which incidentally is more massive than Pluto. To find this latest batch of TNOs, the team of... hypothesised Neptune-sized planet that's thought to inhabit space beyond Pluto, really exists or not. "There are lots of ideas ...
28 October 2019
Hygiea asteroid could turn out to be the smallest dwarf planet yet
...is close to 950 kilometres in size, whilst Pluto, the is it or isn’t it a dwarf planet, has ...a diameter close to 2400 kilometres. Controversy still remains about Pluto’s status after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted to ...
14 February 2020
Arrokoth helps resolve longstanding controversy on Solar System evolution
... gathered in recent flyby’s of Arrokoth, the bi-lobed, red, peanut-like object located one billion miles beyond Pluto in the Kuiper belt, is helping scientists to make significant advances in understanding how planets and planetesimals – the building...
