02 January 2019
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft makes history...again!
Needing less power than a pair of 100-watt light bulbs to perform its mission, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft makes history, again, by getting within 3,500 kilometres (2,200 miles) of the icy world known as Ultima Thule; a 30 kilometre remnant from ...
20 May 2019
A thin layer of ice-trapped gas stops Pluto's oceans from freezing
... shell may be enough to insulate the ocean beneath and stop it from freezing. Sputnik Planitia, the half of Pluto’s heart that possible contains a substantial body of water underneath it, is a topographically low depression which lies mostly in the...
31 December 2018
Discovering Pluto: exploration at the edge of the solar system
... for all planets (or ‘dwarf planets’ in the case of Pluto). Initially they were blurry blobs in early telescopes, then more detailed..., they became the stuff of coffee-table books. Although Pluto has not reached ‘coffee-table status’ yet, this volume...
25 January 2016
Permanent N2 icecap at Pluto’s north pole may be responsible for an expanding atmosphere
..., these strong seasonal effects can be monitored and analysed through stellar occultations here on Earth. Scientists studying Pluto’s surface from several sites in New Zealand, have also reported on a central ‘flash’ observation that occurred during...
22 June 2015
First “movie” of dancing Pluto
... reminder of how little we still know about our own solar system – by revealing the strange “dance” that Pluto, the dwarf planet, does with its largest moon. What’s interesting about the animation, as compiled via...
14 July 2015
Gazing on Pluto’s “heart” with NASA: from Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes to planetary terrain analysis on New Horizons’ historic flyby
... proceedings when one of the images beamed back by New Horizons revealed Pluto to feature a “heart” – like an “I love you” ... Lakdawalla, are already publishing their first impressions. Understanding Pluto’s terrain, as well as the terrain of its moons...
