Wondrous dunes on Pluto are made of grains of frozen methane
Scientists have detected a large field of dunes on the surface of the distant, frigid dwarf planet Pluto apparently composed of wind-swept, sand-sized grains of frozen methane.
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Pluto
NASA Video Soars over Pluto’s Majestic Mountains and Icy Plains
In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sent home the first close-up pictures of Pluto and its moons – amazing imagery that inspired many to wonder what a flight over the distant worlds’ icy terrain might be like.
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Wonder no more. Using actual New Horizons data and digital elevation models of Pluto and its largest moon Charon, mission scientists have created flyover movies that offer spectacular new perspectives of the many unusual features that were discovered and which have reshaped…
Scientists launch campaign to restore Pluto to the planet club
A team of scientists seeking to restore Pluto to planethood launched a campaign on Tuesday to broaden the astronomical classifications which led to its demotion to a "dwarf planet" a decade ago.
Six scientists from institutions across the United States argued that Pluto deserves to be a full planet, along with some 110 other bodies in the solar system, including Earth's moon.
In a paper presented at an international planetary science conference at The Woodlands, Texas, the scientists explained that geological…
Underground ocean found on Pluto, likely slushy with ice
HOUSTON: Scientists have found evidence that tiny, distant Pluto harbors a hidden ocean beneath the frozen surface of its heart-shaped central plain containing as much water as all of Earth's seas.
The finding, reported on Wednesday in two research papers published in the journal Nature, adds Pluto to a growing list of worlds in the solar system beyond Earth believed to have underground oceans, some of which potentially could be habitats for life.
Pluto's ocean, which is likely slushy with ice, lies 93 to 124 miles…
‘Dwarf planet’ discovered in distant Solar System
PARIS: A rare "dwarf planet" 18 times smaller than Earth, has been discovered in the distant Solar System on an eccentric orbit far beyond Neptune, astronomers said Tuesday.
Blue skies, frozen water detected on Pluto
Pluto has blue skies and patches of frozen water, according to the latest data out Thursday from NASA's unmanned New Horizons probe, which made a historic flyby of the dwarf planet in July.
Scientists puzzle over Pluto's polygons
NEW YORK: New pictures relayed by the first spacecraft to visit distant Pluto show odd polygon-shaped features and smooth hills in an crater-free plain, indications that the icy world is geologically active, New Horizons scientists said on Friday.
NASA readies for first Pluto close-up
MIAMI: An unmanned NASA spacecraft will see what Pluto's surface really looks like for the first time Tuesday, beaming images back to Earth as it speeds by the dwarf planet after a near decade-long journey.
NASA detects possible polar ice cap on Pluto
MIAMI: Pluto may have a polar ice cap, NASA scientists said Wednesday after analyzing the latest images from an unmanned spacecraft that is approaching the distant dwarf planet.
NASA spacecraft set to take photos of Pluto
WASHINGTON: Nine years after leaving Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft is at last drawing close to Pluto and on Sunday was expected to start shooting photographs of the dwarf planet.