1

2

Top Headlines

Jupiter and Saturn | (c) (c) Tristan3D / Adobe

Where Were Jupiter and Saturn Born?

Oct. 29, 2020 — New work reveals the likely original locations of Saturn and Jupiter. These findings refine our understanding of the forces that determined our Solar System's unusual ...

The Mountains of Pluto Are Snowcapped, but Not for the Same Reasons as on Earth

Oct. 13, 2020 — In 2015, the New Horizons space probe discovered spectacular snowcapped mountains on Pluto, which are strikingly similar to mountains on Earth. Such ...

Evidence Supports 'Hot Start' Scenario and Early Ocean Formation on Pluto

June 22, 2020 — A new study suggests that Pluto and other large Kuiper belt objects started out with liquid oceans which have been slowly freezing over ...

Pluto's Icy Heart Makes Winds Blow

Feb. 4, 2020 — A 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen controls Pluto's winds and may give rise to features on its surface, according to a new ...

Latest Headlines

updated 7:02pm EST

Solar Wind Slows Farther Away from the Sun

Dec. 2, 2019 — Measurements taken by the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft are providing important new insights from some of the farthest reaches of space ever ...

ESO Telescope Reveals What Could Be the Smallest Dwarf Planet Yet in the Solar System

Oct. 28, 2019 — Astronomers using ESO's SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed that the asteroid Hygiea could be classified as a dwarf ...

How Icy Outer Solar System Satellites May Have Formed

June 25, 2019 — Beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune, there are a multitude of icy and rocky small bodies, smaller than planets but larger than comets. These likely formed at the same time as the Solar System, and ...

Neptune's Moon Triton Fosters Rare Icy Union

May 22, 2019 — Astronomers using the Gemini Observatory explore Neptune's largest moon Triton and observe, for the first time beyond the lab, an extraordinary union between carbon monoxide and nitrogen ices. The ...

Gas Insulation Could Be Protecting an Ocean Inside Pluto

May 20, 2019 — Computer simulations provide compelling evidence that an insulating layer of gas hydrates could keep a subsurface ocean from freezing beneath Pluto's icy ...

Crater Counts on Pluto, Charon Show Small Kuiper Belt Objects Surprisingly Rare

Feb. 28, 2019 — Using New Horizons data from the Pluto-Charon flyby in 2015, scientists have indirectly discovered a distinct and surprising lack of very small ...

Missing-Link in Planet Evolution Found

Jan. 28, 2019 — For the first time ever, astronomers have detected a 1.3 km radius body at the edge of the Solar System. Kilometer sized bodies like the one discovered have been predicted to exist for more than 70 ...

New Ultima Thule Discoveries from NASA's New Horizons

Jan. 3, 2019 — Data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which explored Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule earlier this week, is yielding scientific discoveries ...

NASA's New Horizons Mission Reveals Entirely New Kind of World

Jan. 2, 2019 — Scientists from NASA's New Horizons mission released the first detailed images of the most distant object ever explored -- the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule. Its remarkable appearance, ...

New Horizons Successfully Explores Ultima Thule

Jan. 1, 2019 — NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Ultima Thule in the early hours of New Year's Day, ushering in the era of exploration from the enigmatic Kuiper Belt, a region of primordial objects that ...