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Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart (The New York Times)
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- Get Lost in Space! (9/14/2018) - Way back in August, in anticipation of the start of a new school year, I set out to update the pages on this site related to space. Those pages tend to be popular among the teachers and students who use Cosma, and I happen to enjoy updating them, too. It sounded like a short, fun … Continue reading Get Lost in Space!
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Solar System Exploration: Pluto (NASA)
New Horizons: Exploring Pluto and Beyond (Elizabeth Howell, Space.com)
New Horizons: NASA’s Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission (Official Site, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory)
New Horizons Mission (NASA)
Dictionary
Pluto : a dwarf planet occupying an orbit that crosses the orbit of Neptune — in 2006 the International Astronomical Union defined planet in such a way as to exclude Pluto, reclassifying it instead as a dwarf planet. Although discussion of the matter continues, the change has been widely accepted — Webster
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Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. It was the first Kuiper belt object to be discovered.
Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and was originally considered to be the ninth planet from the Sun. After 1992, its planethood was questioned following the discovery of several objects of similar size in the Kuiper belt. In 2005, Eris, which is 27% more massive than Pluto, was discovered. This led the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term “planet” formally in 2006, during their 26th General Assembly. That definition excluded Pluto and reclassified it as a dwarf planet.
Pluto is the largest and second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object directly orbiting the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume but is less massive than Eris, a dwarf planet in the scattered disc. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is primarily made of ice and rock and is relatively small—about one-sixth the mass of the Moon and one-third its volume. It has a moderately eccentric and inclined orbit during which it ranges from 30 to 49 astronomical units or AU (4.4–7.4 billion km) from the Sun. This means that Pluto periodically comes closer to the Sun than Neptune, but a stable orbital resonance with Neptune prevents them from colliding.
Pluto has five known moons: Charon (the largest, with a diameter just over half that of Pluto), Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Pluto and Charon are sometimes considered a binary system because the barycenter of their orbits does not lie within either body. The IAU has not formalized a definition for binary dwarf planets, and Charon is officially classified as a moon of Pluto. — Wikipedia
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Pluto News -- ScienceDaily Dwarf Planet Pluto News. See images and read science articles on Pluto, Eris and other Kuiper Belt objects.
- Testing the waters: Analyzing different solid...on January 19, 2021 at 3:28 pm
Scientists develop theoretical models to predict the presence of clathrate hydrates outside Earth, shedding light on the evolution of other atmospheres.
- Where were Jupiter and Saturn born?on October 29, 2020 at 3:58 pm
New work reveals the likely original locations of Saturn and Jupiter. These findings refine our understanding of the forces that determined our Solar System's unusual architecture, including the ejection of an additional planet between Saturn and Uranus, ensuring that only small, rocky planets, like Earth, formed inward of Jupiter.
- The mountains of Pluto are snowcapped, but not...on October 13, 2020 at 5:43 pm
In 2015, the New Horizons space probe discovered spectacular snowcapped mountains on Pluto, which are strikingly similar to mountains on Earth. Such a landscape had never before been observed elsewhere in the Solar System. Scientists determined that the methane snow could only appear at the peaks of Pluto's mountains high enough to reach this enriched zone that the air contains enough methane for it to condense.
- Evidence supports 'hot start' scenario and early...on June 22, 2020 at 5:29 pm
A new study suggests that Pluto and other large Kuiper belt objects started out with liquid oceans which have been slowly freezing over time.
- Pluto's icy heart makes winds blowon February 4, 2020 at 4:25 pm
A 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen controls Pluto's winds and may give rise to features on its surface, according to a new study.
Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.
- Catch comet R4 ATLAS as it nears Earthon April 22, 2021 at 1:43 pm
Looking to do some springtime astronomy? With temperatures warming up in the northern hemisphere in April through May, galaxy season is upon us. At dusk, the area in the Bowl of Virgo asterism rising in the east is rife with clusters of galaxies that spill over into the adjacent constellations of Coma Berenices and Boötes…
- NASA's New Horizons reaches a rare space milestoneon April 19, 2021 at 12:10 pm
In the weeks following its launch in early 2006, when NASA's New Horizons was still close to home, it took just minutes to transmit a command to the spacecraft, and hear back that the onboard computer received and was ready to carry out the instructions.
- NASA selects innovative, early-stage tech...on April 9, 2021 at 1:28 pm
JPL's Lunar Crater Radio Telescope advanced concept is among the projects that have been selected for further research and development.
- Scientists determine the origin of extra-solar...on March 17, 2021 at 11:26 am
In 2017, the first interstellar object from beyond our solar system was discovered via the Pan-STARRS astronomical observatory in Hawaii. It was named 'Oumuamua, meaning "scout" or "messenger" in Hawaiian. The object was like a comet, but with features that were just odd enough to defy classification.
- Researcher theorizes worlds with underground...on March 16, 2021 at 4:02 pm
One of the most profound discoveries in planetary science over the past 25 years is that worlds with oceans beneath layers of rock and ice are common in our solar system. Such worlds include the icy satellites of the giant planets, like Europa, Titan and Enceladus, and distant planets like Pluto.
Pluto New Horizons News and images from the Pluto New Horizons team
- The PI’s Perspective: On Final Approach to...by Bill Keeter on December 20, 2018 at 12:13 pm
The New Horizons spacecraft is healthy and on final approach to explore Ultima Thule in the Kuiper Belt. On New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, New Horizons will swoop three times closer to “Ultima” than we flew past Pluto! On Saturday, Dec. 15, the New Horizons hazard watch team concluded its work, having found …
- The PI’s Perspective: Share the News—The...by ptalbert on November 27, 2018 at 8:13 pm
The New Horizons spacecraft is healthy and is now beginning its final approach to explore Ultima Thule — our first Kuiper Belt object (KBO) flyby target — about a billion miles beyond Pluto. And on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, New Horizons will swoop three times closer to “Ultima” than we flew past …
- The PI’s Perspective: Why Didn’t Voyager...by ptalbert on February 28, 2018 at 7:51 pm
New Horizons is in good health and cruising closer each day to our next encounter, an end-of-the-year flyby of the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) 2014 MU69 (or “MU69” for short). Currently, the spacecraft is hibernating while the mission team plans the MU69 flyby. During hibernation, three of the instruments on New Horizons—SWAP, PEPSSI and SDC—collect …
- The PI’s Perspective: Wrapping up 2017 En Route...by ptalbert on December 6, 2017 at 3:31 pm
New Horizons is in good health and cruising closer each day to its next encounter: a flyby of the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) 2014 MU69 (or “MU69” for short). If you follow our mission, you likely know that flyby will occur on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day 2019, which is just barely over …
- No Sleeping Back on Earth!by ptalbert on April 28, 2017 at 1:54 pm
Today’s blog is from Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado—principal investigator for NASA’s New Horizons mission. Three weeks ago we put our New Horizons spacecraft into hibernation mode, the first time we’d done that since late 2014, before the Pluto flyby. By coincidence, that same day – April 7—was also the …
New Horizons News Releases Feed New Horizons News Center Archives
- New Horizons at 50 (AU)by Mike.Buckley@jhuapl.edu (M. Buckley) on April 18, 2021 at 8:00 pm
On April 17, 2021, NASA's New Horizons reached a rare deep-space milepost -- 50 astronomical units from the Sun, or 50 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. To celebrate reaching 50 AU, the New Horizons team compiled a list of 50 facts about this historic mission.
- New Horizons Reaches a Rare Space Milestoneby Mike.Buckley@jhuapl.edu (M. Buckley) on April 15, 2021 at 8:00 pm
This weekend, New Horizons will reach a rare deep-space milepost: 50 astronomical units from the Sun, or 50 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. New Horizons is just the fifth spacecraft to reach this great distance.
- The PI's Perspective: Far From Homeby Mike.Buckley@jhuapl.edu (M. Buckley) on March 23, 2021 at 5:13 am
Principal Investigator Alan Stern rounds up the latest mission activities, and looks ahead to a major mile marker that New Horizons will reach next month.
- Pluto crater named for female engineer who helped...by Mike.Buckley@jhuapl.edu (M. Buckley) on March 8, 2021 at 10:00 pm
When New Horizons flew by Pluto in July 2015, Lisa Hardaway saw the fruits of more than a decade of her labor come into sharp focus. Hardaway passed away almost two years after that iconic moment, but the mission team has remembered her contributions by naming a Pluto crater in her honor.
- The Pluto Perspective: A Launch to Rememberby Mike.Buckley@jhuapl.edu (M. Buckley) on January 22, 2021 at 10:00 pm