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"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler", Albert Einstein
Browsing All posts tagged under »Pluto«
Pluto Stamp Watch
Stamp Petition Gains Nearly 6,000 Signatures The dwarf planet Pluto may be at the edge of our solar system, but an effort on Earth is seeking to put the icy world in mailboxes across the country — in stamp form. An online petition backed by scientists with NASA’s New Horizons mission is pushing for new postage […]
New Horizons Halfway to Pluto
February 3, 2012
In 2006, NASA dispatched an ambassador to the planetary frontier. The New Horizons spacecraft is now halfway between Earth and Pluto, on approach for a dramatic flight past the icy planet and its moons in July 2015. After 10 years and more than 3 billion miles, on a historic voyage that has already taken it […]
Video: Why Pluto is Not a Planet
January 5, 2012
http://youtu.be/BKoRt-6pjAE Read also: Why Pluto is No Longer a Planet
New evidence for complex molecules on Pluto’s surface
December 20, 2011
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) The new and highly sensitive Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a strong ultraviolet-wavelength absorber on Pluto’s surface, providing new evidence that points to the possibility of complex hydrocarbon and/or nitrile molecules lying on the surface, according to a paper recently published in the Astronomical Journal by […]
Faraway Eris is Pluto’s Twin
October 26, 2011
Dwarf planet sized up accurately as it blocks light of faint star Astronomers have accurately measured the diameter of the faraway dwarf planet Eris for the first time by catching it as it passed in front of a faint star. This event was seen at the end of 2010 by telescopes in Chile, including the […]
Pluto’s icy exterior may conceal an ocean
September 16, 2011
PLUTO could hide a liquid ocean beneath its icy shell. Indeed, other bodies on the solar system’s frigid fringe could also harbour subsurface oceans, and these could provide the conditions to sustain life. Temperatures on Pluto’s surface hover around -230 °C, but researchers have long wondered whether the dwarf planet might boast enough internal heat […]
Are there rings around Pluto?
September 10, 2011
Considering effects of tidal plus centrifugal stress acting on icy-rocks and the tensile strength thereof, icy-rocks being in the density range (1-2.4) g cm-3 which had come into existence as collisional ejecta (debris) in the vicinity of Pluto at the time when Pluto-Charon system came into being as a result of a giant impact of […]
12 August 1930: Pluto: the new planet
August 12, 2011
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 12 August 1930 It would seem all doubts as to the existence of the new planet announced from the Lowell Observatory in March last have been set at rest. Fifteen years ago the late Dr. Percival Lowell published his “Memoir on a Trans Neptunian Planet,” in which he […]
Astronomers Predict That Pluto Has A Ring
August 8, 2011
Dust from Pluto’s satellites ought to form a faint ring around the dwarf planet, according to new calculations Until recently, the only ring in the Solar System was Saturn’s. But in 1960s and 70s, astronomers discovered rings around Uranus and Neptune. Meanwhile, the Voyager 1spacecraft sent back images of Jupiter’s ring. To be sure, these […]
Why Pluto is No Longer a Planet
July 20, 2011
Is Pluto a planet? Does it qualify? For an object to be a planet, it needs to meet these three requirements defined by the IAU: It needs to be in orbit around the Sun – Yes, so maybe Pluto is a planet. It needs to have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape […]
NASA’s Hubble Discovers Another Moon Around Pluto
July 20, 2011
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a fourth moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The tiny, new satellite – temporarily designated P4 — was uncovered in a Hubble survey searching for rings around the dwarf planet. The new moon is the smallest discovered around Pluto. It has an estimated diameter of 8 to […]
February 24, 2012
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