Search results for Trans Neptunian Object

Space Exploration Jul 13, 2015

Pluto and its collision-course place in our solar system

There are just hours to go now before the New Horizons Spacecraft will tear past Pluto on Tuesday July 14 (about 10pm AEST), giving us our first closeup view of the enigmatic dwarf planet.

Space Exploration Jul 7, 2015

What is the newest planet?

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 ...

Space Exploration Jun 17, 2015

What is the Kuiper Belt?

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 ...

Space Exploration Jun 15, 2015

What is Halley's Comet?

Halley's Comet, also known as 1P/Halley, is the most well known comet in the Solar System. As a periodic (or short-term comet) it has orbital period that is less than 200 years, and has therefore been observed more than once ...

Space Exploration Feb 20, 2015

A recipe for returning Pluto to full planethood

A storm is brewing, a battle of words and a war of the worlds. The Earth is not at risk. It is mostly a civil dispute, but it has the potential to influence the path of careers. In 2014, a Harvard led debate was undertaken ...

Astronomy Jan 15, 2015

Trans-Neptunian objects suggest that there are more planets in the solar system

There could be at least two unknown planets hidden well beyond Pluto, whose gravitational influence determines the orbits and strange distribution of objects observed beyond Neptune. This has been revealed by numerical calculations ...

Space Exploration Dec 30, 2014

NASA's upcoming Year of the Dwarf Planet

Together, the space probes Dawn and New Horizons have been in flight for a collective 17 years. One remained close to home and the other departed to parts of the Solar System of which little is known. They now share a common ...

Space Exploration Dec 9, 2014

Giant impacts, planet formation and the search for life elsewhere

In the search for life beyond our solar system, we need to consider the system in which a planet moves, including the other planets and assorted debris that accompany it on its journey through the cosmos.

Earth Sciences Dec 2, 2014

What percent of Earth is water?

The Earth is often compared to a majestic blue marble, especially by those privileged few who have gazed upon it from orbit. This is due to the prevalence of water on the planet's surface. While water itself is not blue, ...

Astronomy Jun 10, 2014

Herschel observatory's population of trans-Neptunian objects

(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.

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