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 What processes during the formation of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, potentially led to it having cryovolcanism, and even an internal ocean? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC 2025) hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the formation and evolution of Charon to ascertain whether it once possessed an internal ocean during its history and if this could have led to cryovolcanism based on images obtained by NASA's New Horizons probe. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-cryovolcanism-resurfacing-pluto-largest-moon.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 27 Jun 2025 11:26:52 EDT news670242410 For centuries, astronomers have sought to understand the formation and evolution of the solar system and the dynamics that govern it. In particular, there is the long-standing question of whether or not the planets' orbits will remain stable over time. However, these studies have generally treated the solar system as an isolated system, focusing solely on the gravitational interactions between the planets. This is in spite of the fact that astronomers have known for some time that stars in the Milky Way make close passes to each other every so often. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-stars-significant-impact-future-solar.html Astronomy Mon, 02 Jun 2025 15:24:04 EDT news668096642 Earth was long thought to be the only planet in our solar system with an ocean, but it is beginning to look as though there are underground oceans inside even the most surprising icy bodies. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-oceans-dwarf-planets-pluto-abundance.html Astrobiology Thu, 04 Apr 2024 13:20:03 EDT news631455601 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 The Kuiper Belt, the vast region at the edge of our solar system populated by countless icy objects, is a treasure trove of scientific discoveries. The detection and characterization of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), sometimes referred to as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), has led to a new understanding of the history of the solar system. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-jwst-kuiper-belt-sedna-gonggong.html Astronomy Mon, 16 Oct 2023 13:37:04 EDT news616682221 Impact cratering happens on every solid body in the solar system. In fact, it is the dominant process affecting the surfaces on most extraterrestrial bodies today. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-incredible-craters-fall-grandeur-solar.html Astronomy Mon, 05 Jun 2023 14:08:04 EDT news605192882 Object 90377 Sedna—a distant trans-Neptunian object known best for its highly elliptical, 11,390-year long orbit—is currently on its way toward perihelion (its closest approach to the sun) in 2076. After that, Sedna will swing out into deep space again and won't be back for millennia, making this flyby a once-in-a-lifetime (or, once in ~113 lifetimes) opportunity to study an object from the far reaches of our solar system. There are no missions to Sedna in the works just yet, but astronomers are beginning to plan for the possibility, and the ideal launch date for such a mission is approaching fast, with two of the best launch windows coming up in 2029 and 2034. https://phys.org/news/2022-01-year-mission-sedna.html Space Exploration Wed, 05 Jan 2022 07:13:21 EST news560589198 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 Pluto's status as a "dwarf planet" is once again stirring debate. This comes as some planetary scientists are trying to have Pluto reclassified as a planet – a wish that's not likely to come true. https://phys.org/news/2017-03-planet-dwarf-planetall-worlds-worth.html Space Exploration Mon, 20 Mar 2017 07:29:18 EDT news409213748 In 2006, during their 26th General Assembly, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted a formal definition of the term "planet". This was done in the hopes of dispelling ambiguity over which bodies should be designated as "planets", an issue that had plagued astronomers ever since they discovered objects beyond the orbit of Neptune that were comparable in size to Pluto. https://phys.org/news/2017-02-geophysical-planet-definition.html Space Exploration Wed, 22 Feb 2017 08:54:24 EST news406976055 (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 Since the beginning of human history, people have understood that the sun is a central part of life as we know it. It's importance to countless mythological and cosmological systems across the globe is a testament to this. But as our understand of it matured, we came to learn that the sun was here long before us, and will be here long after we're gone. Having formed roughly 4.6 billion years ago, our sun began its life roughly 40 million years before our Earth had formed. https://phys.org/news/2016-05-earth-survive-sun-red-giant.html Astronomy Tue, 10 May 2016 08:03:28 EDT news382086195 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 Over the course of the past decade, more and more objects have been discovered within the trans-Neptunian region. With every new find, we have learned more about the history of our solar system and the mysteries it holds. At the same time, these finds have forced astronomers to reexamine astronomical conventions that have been in place for decades. https://phys.org/news/2015-09-dwarf-planet-or10.html Space Exploration Thu, 03 Sep 2015 08:50:01 EDT news360487966 The vast Kuiper Belt, which orbits at the outer edge of our solar system, has been the site of many exciting discoveries in the past decade or so. Otherwise known as the Trans-Neptunian region, small bodies have been discovered here that have confounded our notions of what constitutes a planet and thrown our entire classification system for a loop. Of these, the most famous (and controversial) discovery was undoubtedly Eris. https://phys.org/news/2015-08-dwarf-planet-quaoar.html Space Exploration Fri, 28 Aug 2015 09:30:02 EDT news359972099 The term dwarf planet has been tossed around a lot in recent years. As part of a three-way categorization of bodies orbiting the sun, the term was adopted in 2006 due to the discovery of objects beyond the orbit of Neptune that were comparable in size to Pluto. Since then, it has come to be used to describe many objects in our solar system, upending the old classification system that claimed there were nine planets. https://phys.org/news/2015-08-dwarf-planet.html Space Exploration Tue, 18 Aug 2015 08:30:41 EDT news359105429 The Trans-Neptunian region has become a veritable treasure trove of discoveries in recent years. Since 2003, the dwarf planets and "plutoids" of Eris, Sedna, Makemake, Quaoar, and Orcus were all observed beyond the orbit of Pluto. And in between all of these, Haumea – that odd, oblong-shaped dwarf planet that has its own system of moons – was also discovered. https://phys.org/news/2015-08-dwarf-planet-haumea.html Space Exploration Fri, 14 Aug 2015 09:10:02 EDT news358758182 Ask a person what Dysnomia refers to, and they might venture that it's a medical condition. In truth, they would be correct. But in addition to being a condition that affects the memory (where people have a hard time remembering words and names), it is also the only known moon of the distant dwarf planet Eris. https://phys.org/news/2015-07-eris-moon-dysnomia.html Space Exploration Wed, 29 Jul 2015 09:30:01 EDT news357378847 With astronomers discovering new planets and other celestial objects all the time, you may be wondering what the newest planet to be discovered is. Well, that depends on your frame of reference. If we are talking about our Solar System, then the answer used to be Pluto, which was discovered by the American astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh in 1930. https://phys.org/news/2015-07-planet.html Space Exploration Tue, 07 Jul 2015 09:40:02 EDT news355477132 The new pictures that NASA's New Horizons probe has begun to beam back have revealed Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, in ever greater detail from what is the first ever spacecraft fly-by. https://phys.org/news/2015-07-nasa-mission-pluto-sharp-focus.html Space Exploration Mon, 06 Jul 2015 08:30:05 EDT news355386889 Dr. Mike Brown is a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech. He's best known as the man who killed Pluto, thanks to his team's discovery of Eris and other Kuiper Belt Objects. We asked him to help us explain this unusual region of our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2015-06-kuiper-belt.html Space Exploration Wed, 17 Jun 2015 09:10:04 EDT news353749610 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