https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The mystery of how Pluto got a giant heart-shaped feature on its surface has finally been solved by an international team of astrophysicists led by the University of Bern and members of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS. The team is the first to successfully reproduce the unusual shape with numerical simulations, attributing it to a giant and slow oblique-angle impact. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-astrophysicists-mystery-heart-feature-surface.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 15 Apr 2024 11:52:25 EDT news632400739 Scientists have discovered a new ring system around a dwarf planet on the edge of the solar system. The ring system orbits much further out than is typical for other ring systems, calling into question current theories of how ring systems are formed. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-solar.html Astronomy Wed, 08 Feb 2023 11:00:03 EST news595070692 Beyond the orbit of Neptune, a diverse collection of thousands of dwarf planets and other relatively small objects dwells in a region called the Kuiper Belt. These often-pristine leftovers from our solar system's days of planet formation are called Kuiper Belt objects, or trans-Neptunian objects. NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will examine an assortment of these icy bodies in a series of programs called Guaranteed Time Observations shortly after its launch in 2021. The goal is to learn more about how our solar system formed. https://phys.org/news/2020-10-nasa-webb-graveyard-solar.html Astronomy Thu, 29 Oct 2020 09:04:08 EDT news523181045 More than 230 years ago astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus and two of its moons. Using the Herschel Space Observatory, a group of astronomers led by Örs H. Detre of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy now has succeeded in determining physical properties of the five main moons of Uranus. The measured infrared radiation, which is generated by the Sun heating their surfaces, suggests that these moons resemble dwarf planets like Pluto. The team developed a new analysis technique that extracted the faint signals from the moons next to Uranus, which is more than a thousand times brighter. The study was published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-uranian-moons.html Astronomy Mon, 14 Sep 2020 09:50:52 EDT news519295849 Discovered in 2004, Haumea is a dwarf planet located beyond Pluto's orbit in a region of the solar system called the Kuiper Belt. Pluto was demoted from the category of fully fledged planets in 2006 because of the discovery of Haumea and other dwarf planets. https://phys.org/news/2019-05-scientists-dwarf-planet.html Astronomy Wed, 08 May 2019 07:39:46 EDT news476519975 Forget those shepherding moons. Gravity and the odd shapes of asteroid Chariklo and dwarf planet Haumea—small objects deep in our solar system—can be credited for forming and maintaining their own rings, according new research in Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2018-11-odd-bodies-rapid-cosmic.html Astronomy Mon, 19 Nov 2018 12:27:54 EST news461852867 A Southwest Research Institute team using internal research funds has made several discoveries that expand the range and value of a future Pluto orbiter mission. The breakthroughs define a fuel-saving orbital tour and demonstrate that an orbiter can continue exploration in the Kuiper Belt after surveying Pluto. These and other results from the study will be reported this week at a workshop on future Pluto and Kuiper Belt exploration at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee. https://phys.org/news/2018-10-team-breakthroughs-pluto-orbiter-mission.html Space Exploration Wed, 24 Oct 2018 16:28:33 EDT news459617303 Move over Saturn! Scientists have found a ring around an unassuming mini-planet in our Solar System to debunk the theory that only giant planets can be so adorned. https://phys.org/news/2017-10-dwarf-planet.html Astronomy Wed, 11 Oct 2017 14:16:17 EDT news426950136 Haumea, a dwarf planet on the edge of our solar system doesn't have the same kind of moons as its well-known cousin Pluto according to a new study. This is despite original evidence that suggested they both formed in similar giant impacts and adds to the mystery shrouding how these icy bodies formed.  https://phys.org/news/2016-05-dwarf-planet-haumea-lunar-smaller.html Space Exploration Mon, 16 May 2016 17:42:08 EDT news382639296 Dwarf planets tend to be a mysterious bunch. With the exception of Ceres, which resides in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, all members of this class of minor planets in our solar system lurk in the depths beyond Neptune. They are far from Earth - small and cold - which makes them difficult to observe, even with large telescopes. So it's little wonder astronomers only discovered most of them in the past decade or so. https://phys.org/news/2016-05-or10-largest-unnamed-dwarf-planet.html Space Exploration Thu, 12 May 2016 06:05:49 EDT news382251939 Only around 60 million kilometres closer to the Sun than Ceres, another large rock is orbiting in the remote asteroid belt: Vesta. Although its diameter of approximately 530 kilometres makes it a bit too small to be counted as a dwarf planet, it is nevertheless big enough to be the second heaviest and third largest body in this region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Ceres' little sister has already gone through what is in store for the asteroid in the coming months: As the first destination of the US Dawn mission, the spacecraft's three onboard measuring instruments subjected Vesta to more than a year of permanent monitoring from July 2011 to September 2012. As it turned out: Vesta was originally well on its way to developing into a planet. https://phys.org/news/2015-04-vestaceres-sister.html Space Exploration Tue, 21 Apr 2015 06:23:50 EDT news348816219 Some serious groundwork has been laid. Some amazing instruments are turning on. Some incredible destinations are in sight. If you ask us, 2015 is going to be an awesome year in science. https://phys.org/news/2015-01-year-science.html Other Mon, 05 Jan 2015 04:32:36 EST news339654747 (Phys.org) —ESA's Herschel space observatory has observed 132 of the known 1400 cold worlds that inhabit a region of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune, some 4.5–7.5 billion km from the Sun. https://phys.org/news/2014-06-herschel-observatory-population-trans-neptunian.html Astronomy Tue, 10 Jun 2014 05:51:47 EDT news321598294 Astronomers have used three telescopes at ESO's observatories in Chile to observe the dwarf planet Makemake as it drifted in front of a distant star and blocked its light. The new observations have allowed them to check for the first time whether Makemake is surrounded by an atmosphere. The scientists also measured Makemake's density for the first time. The new results are to be published in the Nov. 22 issue of the journal Nature. https://phys.org/news/2012-11-dwarf-planet-makemake-reveals-secrets.html Astronomy Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:00:06 EST news272725059 Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered that the dwarf planet 2007 OR10—nicknamed Snow White—is an icy world, with about half its surface covered in water ice that once flowed from ancient, slush-spewing volcanoes. The new findings also suggest that the red-tinged dwarf planet may be covered in a thin layer of methane, the remnants of an atmosphere that's slowly being lost into space. https://phys.org/news/2011-08-astronomers-ice-possibly-methane-white.html Astronomy Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:45:03 EDT news233246675 The fifth dwarf planet of the Solar System, Haumea, and at least one of its two satellites, are covered in crystalline water-ice due to the tidal forces between them and the heat of radiogenic elements. This is the finding of an international research study using observations from the VLT telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. https://phys.org/news/2011-05-dwarf-planet-haumea-crystalline-ice.html Astronomy Thu, 12 May 2011 10:53:16 EDT news224416380 (PhysOrg.com) -- Until now, astronomers have used telescopes to find Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs), moon-sized bodies, and obtain their spectra to determine what types of ices are on their surface. They have also used thermal-imaging techniques to get a rough idea of the size of KBOs, but other details have been difficult to glean. While astronomers think there are about 70,000 KBOs that are larger than 100 kilometers in diameter, the objects' relatively small size and location make it hard to study them in detail. https://phys.org/news/2010-06-astronomers-kuiper-belt-stellar-occultation.html Astronomy Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:00:01 EDT news195910933 (PhysOrg.com) -- The solar system does not end abruptly past the planets. Beyond the orbit of Neptune, the outermost planet (it orbits the sun at a distance of 30 AU, where one AU is the average distance of the earth from the sun), lies the Kuiper Belt, a region of many, small icy bodies that extends out well beyond 130 AU. https://phys.org/news/2010-05-edges-solar.html Astronomy Fri, 07 May 2010 12:50:01 EDT news192454391 A dark red area discovered on dwarf planet Haumea appears to be richer in minerals and organic compounds than the surrounding icy surface. The discovery will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Dr Pedro Lacerda on Wednesday 16 September. https://phys.org/news/2009-09-dwarf-planet-haumea-red-rich.html Astronomy Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:40:10 EDT news172316850 (PhysOrg.com) -- When a treasure hunt comes up empty-handed, the hunters are understandably disappointed. But when astronomers don't find what they are looking for, the defeat can provide as much information as a successful search. https://phys.org/news/2008-10-outer-solar-crowded-astronomers-thought.html Astronomy Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:17:18 EDT news142255038