See also stories tagged with Pluto
Ever since William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, astronomers have been eager to find new planets on the outer edge of the solar system. But after the discovery of Neptune in 1846, we've found no other large planets. ...
Pluto may have been downgraded from full-planet status, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hold a special place in scientist's hearts. There are practical and sentimental reasons for that—Pluto has tantalizing mysteries to ...
Mount Vesuvius, Krakatoa, Mount St. Helens: Since the formation of Earth approximately 4.5 billion years ago, the convection and release of hot magma in its mantle layer has famously led to some of the deadliest eruptions ...
A Southwest Research Institute-led team combined compositional data of primitive bodies like Kuiper Belt objects, asteroids and comets with new solar data sets to develop a revised solar composition that potentially reconciles ...
In the 1997 movie "Contact," adapted from Carl Sagan's 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm ...
Sending an object to another star is still the stuff of science fiction. But some concrete missions could get us at least part way there. These "interstellar precursor missions" include a trip to the solar gravitational lens ...
Many black holes detected to date appear to be part of a pair. These binary systems comprise a black hole and a secondary object—such as a star, a much denser neutron star, or another black hole—that spiral around each other, ...
The human mind may find it difficult to conceptualize: a cosmic cloud so colossal it surrounds the sun and eight planets as it extends trillions of miles into deep space.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very different viewpoints. The results inform ...
Prepare to spot a rare, bright comet. The space rock is slinging toward Earth from the outer reaches of the solar system and will make its closest pass on Saturday. It should be visible through the end of October, clear skies ...
