NASA Probe Searches Pluto for New Moons and Rings

Medicine & Technology May 16, 2015

NASA’s New Horizons space probe is set to make the history books when it flies past Pluto on July 14. Currently, the probe looking closely at the little dwarf planet as it looks for anything that could cause problems for the craft during the final months of its historic mission.

New Horizons Captures First Glimpse at Pluto’s Faintest Moons

May 13, 2015

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has taken the first ever family portrait of Pluto and all of its moons, including the faintest of its known moons.

NASA’s Best Photos Yes of Pluto Show Possible Ice Cap

Apr 30, 2015

NASA's New Horizons probe has snapped some of the best photos yet of Pluto and its large moon Charon. The new photos are now beginning to reveal distinct surface features of the distant dwarf planet, including one bright area that could be a snowy polar cap, mission managers said.

New Horizon's Sends Back First Color Image of Pluto and Charon

Apr 15, 2015

In July, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will make its closest pass of Pluto, giving us a closer look at a body living in a little known region of our solar system. While it still has millions of miles left to go, New Horizons still has a treat for everyone as it has taken the first ever color image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.

Could More Dwarf Planets Lie Beyond Pluto

Jan 20, 2015

According to calculations by scientists at the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Cambridge, not one, but at least two dwarf planets must exist beyond Pluto in order to explain the orbital behavior of extreme trans-Neptunian objects.

New Planets Hiding In the Shadow of Pluto

Jan 18, 2015

While space agencies and astronomers alike have found that the outer fringes of our very own solar system holds small asteroids and chunks of ice, as opposed to life, it turns out that our investigation of the relatively small solar system is far from over. In fact, a pair of new studies published just this week reveal that we may be adding new members to the roster as at least two new planets larger than Earth are likely hiding beyond Pluto.

New Study Reveals Prospective Planets Just Beyond Pluto—And There May Be More Than One

Jan 17, 2015

Though Pluto may have been demoted from the title of planet to “dwarf planet”, NASA’s newest mission New Horizons which plans a flyby next summer has sparked new interest in the farthest depths of our very own solar system. And it appears that we may not just stop there. According to a new study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers believe that even closer than our Oort cloud we may find at least two more planets circling our Sun far beyond Pluto’s vast expanses.

New Horizons Prepares for Pluto Flyby

Jan 17, 2015

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has began its long-awaited encounter with the tiny dwarf planet Pluto. Researchers have announced that the craft is entering the first of several approach phases that will culminate on July 14 with the first ever close-up flyby of the dwarf planet, located 4.67 billion miles from Earth.

New Horizons, Old Science—Recycling the Old Playstation Processor

Jan 16, 2015

Old technology, ground breaking mission; NASA's New Horizon probe is encroaching on the "dwarf planet" Pluto with a data-logging 1996 PlayStation processor.

Up and Ready for Business—NASA’s New Horizons Probe Wakes 2.9 Billion Miles Away

Dec 09, 2014

It was a message from 2.9 billion miles away, yet NASA researchers heard it loud and clear. Early this Saturday, Dec. 6, researchers from NASA confirmed that the New Horizons Orbiter spacecraft had awakened from its hibernation state, and was ready begin the climax of its nine-year trip to Pluto.