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. 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 object, after Pluto, where the presence of gas has been confirmed. The gas was identified as methane. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-methane-gas-dwarf-planet-makemake.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 09 Sep 2025 13:29:03 EDT news676643341 A team co-led by Southwest Research Institute found evidence for hydrothermal or metamorphic activity within the icy dwarf planets Eris and Makemake, located in the Kuiper Belt. Methane detected on their surfaces has the tell-tale signs of warm or even hot geochemistry in their rocky cores, which is markedly different than the signature of methane from a comet. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-evidence-geothermal-icy-dwarf.html Astronomy Thu, 15 Feb 2024 12:11:17 EST news627221462 Scientists have unraveled a fascinating new insight into how the landscape of the dwarf-planet Pluto has formed. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-mystery-nitrogen-ice-dynamics-pluto.html Space Exploration Wed, 15 Dec 2021 11:19:59 EST news558789596 The accretion of new material during Pluto's formation may have generated enough heat to create a liquid ocean that has persisted beneath an icy crust to the present day, despite the dwarf planet's orbit far from the sun in the cold outer reaches of the solar system. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-evidence-hot-scenario-early-ocean.html Space Exploration Mon, 22 Jun 2020 11:00:03 EDT news512023951 A trio of researchers with the University of Hawaii has developed a new theory to explain how the dunes on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may have formed. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, Matthew Abplanalp, Robert Frigge and Ralf Kaiser suggest that rather than forming from rainfall, the dunes have formed on the moon's surface. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-theory-dunes-titan.html Space Exploration Thu, 17 Oct 2019 09:24:26 EDT news490523056 Triton orbits Neptune, the eighth planet from the Sun, some 2.7 billion miles from Earth—at the cold outer fringe of the Solar System's major planet zone. Surface temperatures hover near absolute zero, so low that common compounds we know as gases on Earth freeze into ices. Triton's atmosphere, which is 70,000 times less dense than Earth's, is composed of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. https://phys.org/news/2019-07-unprecedented-discovery-unique-infrared-signature.html Astronomy Tue, 30 Jul 2019 07:56:52 EDT news483692204 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 (Phys.org)—A team of space scientists at the University of Michigan has discovered a dwarf planet that is approximately half the size of Pluto and twice as far from the sun. The sighting was reported by NPR, which interviewed team lead physicist David Gerdes. He told them credit goes to a group of students who were challenged to find some new objects to add to the ongoing construction of a galaxy map. Their efforts led to software that can be used to analyze imagery from the Dark Energy Camera (the camera used as part of the ongoing Dark Energy Survey). It looks for objects that are moving in any given patch of sky—a sure sign that they are in our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2016-10-dwarf-planet-solar.html Space Exploration Wed, 12 Oct 2016 08:30:02 EDT news395478225 A Southwest Research Institute-led team has discovered an elusive, dark moon orbiting Makemake, one of the "big four" dwarf planets populating the Kuiper Belt region at the edge of our solar system. The findings are detailed in the paper "Discovery of a Makemakean Moon," published in the June 27 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2016-06-team-moon-makemake-kuiper-belt.html Space Exploration Mon, 27 Jun 2016 16:40:17 EDT news386264378 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 Peering to the outskirts of our solar system, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake, the second brightest icy dwarf planet—after Pluto—in the Kuiper Belt. https://phys.org/news/2016-04-hubble-moon-orbiting-dwarf-planet.html Space Exploration Tue, 26 Apr 2016 14:47:47 EDT news380900852 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 (Phys.org)—Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have obtained what is likely the first direct observation of a forming planet still embedded in a thick disc of gas and dust. If confirmed, this discovery will greatly improve our understanding of how planets form and allow astronomers to test the current theories against an observable target. https://phys.org/news/2013-02-birth-giant-planet-candidate-protoplanet.html Astronomy Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:06:14 EST news281271964 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 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) -- 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