A new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) provides evidence that liquid nitrogen is rising to Pluto's surface through cracks at the northern edge of Sputnik Planitia, part of the massive heart-shaped glacier ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 6, 2026
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27
Pluto is on an icy march away from the sun. In 2114, it will turn back, but until then, its elliptical orbit will carry it to colder and darker parts of the outer solar system. This is Pluto's first time entering the outer ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 3, 2026
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51
Scientists have detected evidence of landslides on Pluto for the first time. A paper published in the journal Icarus reports that images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft during a flyby revealed six large landslides in ...
Researchers are constantly sifting through new spectral data gathered by powerful telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Most of the time, when they identify spectral features—specific absorption or emission ...
As a space scientist, every time I go outside with my family, I tell my children to look up at the sky. The front door of our home looks southeast, and on winter nights the constellation Orion hangs majestically just above ...
Astronomy
Mar 5, 2026
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60
In our nearby stellar neighborhood, a burned-out star is snacking on a fragment of a Pluto-like object. With its unique ultraviolet capability, only NASA's Hubble Space Telescope could identify that this meal is taking place.
Astronomy
Sep 18, 2025
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60
A Southwest Research Institute-led team has reported the first detection of gas on the distant dwarf planet Makemake, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This discovery makes Makemake only the second trans-Neptunian ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 9, 2025
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123
Is there a massive undiscovered planet on the outer reaches of the solar system? The idea has been around since before the discovery of Pluto in the 1930s. Labeled as planet X, prominent astronomers had put it forward as ...
Astronomy
Jul 29, 2025
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154
Trans-Neptunian objects (TNO) are some of our solar system's lesser-known objects. They number in the thousands, and they get their name from their orbits. These dwarf planets orbit the sun at a greater average distance than ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 16, 2025
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398
The Subaru Telescope has made an exciting discovery: a small body beyond Pluto, with implications for the formation, evolution, and current structure of the outer solar system.
Astronomy
Jul 16, 2025
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139
