Related topics: spacecraft · solar system

Astronomers observe Pluto and its moons

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Williams College team of astronomers, headed by Bryce Babcock and Jay Pasachoff, have been in Hawaii, near Honolulu, to observe a rare double-double event about Pluto. On June 23rd, they observed an occultation, ...

SOFIA successfully observes challenging Pluto occultation

(PhysOrg.com) -- On June 23, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) observed the dwarf planet Pluto as it passed in front of a distant star. This event, known as an "occultation," allowed scientific ...

Pluto has carbon monoxide in its atmosphere

A British-based team of astronomers has discovered carbon monoxide gas in the atmosphere of Pluto, after a worldwide search lasting for nearly two decades. Team leader Dr Jane Greaves of the University of St Andrews will ...

Recent news on the debate over Pluto's planethood

Earlier this month, Eris -- the distant world first discovered by Caltech's Mike Brown and colleagues back in 2005, paving the way for the eventual demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet -- passed fortuitously in front ...

Landing on Pluto may only be a hop, skip and jump away

There are plenty of crazy ideas for missions in the space exploration community. Some are just better funded than others. One of the early pathways to funding the crazy ideas is NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts. In ...

Should we send humans to Pluto?

Universe Today has examined the potential for sending humans to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, the planet Venus, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan, all despite their respective harsh environments and vast distances. These conversations ...

An unusual crater on Pluto might be a supervolcano

Pluto with a super-cryovolcano? Why not! All the elements are there, just not in the way we normally think of volcanoes. And cryovolcanoes are the reason why Pluto's surface looks the way it does. A recent research paper ...

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