
Charon: An Ice Machine In The Ultimate Deep Freeze
Frigid geysers spewing
material up through cracks
in the crust of Pluto's
companion Charon, and
recoating parts of its
surface in ice crystals,
... > full story

Dwarf Planet Eris Is More Massive Than Pluto
Aptly named after the Greek
goddess of conflict, the icy
dwarf planet, Eris, has
rattled the general model of
our solar system. The object
was discovered by astronomer
... > full story

Kuiper-belt Object Was Broken Up By Massive Impact 4.5 Billion Years Ago
In the outer reaches of the
solar system, there is an
object known as 2003 EL61
that looks like and spins
like a football being
... > full story

Zooming To Pluto, New Horizons Spacecraft Approaches Jupiter
Just a year after it was
dispatched on the first
mission to Pluto and the
Kuiper Belt, the APL-built
New Horizons spacecraft is
on the doorstep of the solar
... > full story
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NASA Spacecraft En Route To Pluto Prepares For Jupiter Encounter
January 18, 2007 NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is on the doorstep of the solar system's largest planet. The spacecraft will study and swing past Jupiter, increasing speed on its voyage toward Pluto, the Kuiper Belt ... > full story -
Dwarf Planet Formerly Known As Xena Officially Named 'Eris'
September 15, 2006 The International Astronomical Union has announced that the dwarf planet known as Xena since its 2005 discovery has been named Eris, after the Greek goddess of discord. Eris's moon will be known as ... > full story -
Pluto Downgraded To 'Dwarf Planet' Status; Solar System Now Has Eight Planets
August 24, 2006 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a "dwarf planet," a designation that will also be applied to the spherical body discovered last year by ... > full story -
Bigger Solar System? Astronomers Debate Definition Of 'Planet' And 'Plutons'
August 16, 2006 The world's astronomers, under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), have concluded two years of work defining the difference between "planets" and the smaller "solar system ... > full story -
New Capture Scenario Explains Origin Of Neptune's Oddball Moon Triton
May 11, 2006 Triton, unique among all the large moons in the solar system because it orbits Neptune in a direction opposite to the planet's rotation, may have abandoned an earlier partner to arrive in its unusual ... > full story -
Evidence Mounts For Sun's Companion Star
April 24, 2006 The Binary Research Institute (BRI) has found that orbital characteristics of the recently discovered planetoid, "Sedna," demonstrate the possibility that our sun might be part of a binary star ... > full story -
Hubble Finds 'Tenth Planet' Is Slightly Larger Than Pluto
April 17, 2006 NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has resolved the "tenth planet," nicknamed "Xena," for the first time and has found that it is only just a little larger than Pluto. Though previous ground-based ... > full story -
Researchers Describe Discovery Of Pluto's New Moons
February 23, 2006 Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Southwest Research Institute describe the discovery of two new moons around Pluto -- a finding that made the ninth ... > full story -
Kuiper Belt Moons Are Starting To Seem Typical
January 17, 2006 In the not-too-distant past, the planet Pluto was thought to be an odd bird in the outer reaches of the solar system because it has a moon, Charon, that was formed much like Earth's own moon was ... > full story -
Measuring Charon: Astronomers Seize Rare Opportunity
January 5, 2006 Being in the right place at the right time gave a group of Massachusetts research astronomers a unique opportunity to study Pluto's largest moon Charon. The resulting measurements, to unprecedented ... > full story
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