Carl Sagan famously said we were the luckiest generation, to be present during the first reconnaissance of the solar system. The New Horizons mission to Pluto completes this half-century project with its stunning images and ...
Space Exploration
Jul 21, 2015
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Peering closely at the "heart of Pluto," in the western half of what mission scientists have informally named Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), New Horizons' Ralph instrument revealed evidence of carbon monoxide ice.
Space Exploration
Jul 20, 2015
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Drifting along at what for decades was regarded as the outer boundary of our solar system, icy Pluto is far from alone. The dwarf planet has moons – at least five of them – which are all fascinating little worlds in their ...
Space Exploration
Jul 17, 2015
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Our solar system's shadowy ninth (dwarf) planet was the subject of furious speculation and a frantic search for almost a century before it was finally discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. And remarkably, Pluto's reality ...
Astronomy
Jul 17, 2015
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Back in 1930, it was an easy answer – Pluto was a planet because we couldn't see anything else brighter at a similar distance away from us, says Dejan Stojkovic, an associate professor of physics in the University at Buffalo ...
Space Exploration
Jul 17, 2015
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Science is hard and good science is harder – it takes persistence and tons of patience. When we began planning a mission to Pluto over 15 years ago, we knew it was going to be, as they say, a long haul. But we also knew ...
Space Exploration
Jul 16, 2015
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New Horizons' fly-by of Pluto and its moons is the latest in a historic string of missions to objects in the solar system. But given that a fly-by lasts for just a short time, how much can we really get out of it? There's ...
Space Exploration
Jul 15, 2015
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When New Horizons phoned home this morning (Australian time) after its close encounter with Pluto, there was jubilation and excitement.
Space Exploration
Jul 15, 2015
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On Sunday, 12 July 2015, OSIRIS, the scientific imaging system on board ESA's spacecraft Rosetta, took a glance towards the rim of our Solar System. Instead of studying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as in the past 15 months, ...
Space Exploration
Jul 15, 2015
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NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reached its closest approach to Pluto on Tuesday, swooping to within 7,800 miles of the dwarf planet out beyond Neptune, snapping pictures and gathering data.
Space Exploration
Jul 15, 2015
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