The experts attribute the formation of the unique heart-shaped terrain to a colossal oblique-angle collision with a celestial body approximately 700 kilometers in diameter – roughly twice the size of Switzerland from east to west.
A new method for scanning telescope images for the faintest signs of rock far beyond Pluto has uncovered evidence that our Solar System's disc of material extends far further into interstellar space than we thought.
The accretion of new material during Pluto's formation may have generated enough heat to create a liquid ocean that has persisted beneath an icy crust to the present day.
During the day, a thin layer of nitrogen ice warms and turns into vapor. At night, the vapor condenses and once again forms ice. Each sequence is like a heartbeat, pumping nitrogen winds around the dwarf planet.
The new clue to Planet Nine's existence was spotted in data from the Dark Energy Survey. The new object we can see and observe is called 2015 BP519, and looks like it could be as big as Pluto itself.
Scientists have identified a new dwarf planet in our Solar System, and it's lurking way out in the edges, some 13.6 billion km from the Sun.
A prior study demonstrated that Pluto's center is sufficiently warm to bolster a fluid water sea, and now we've discovered that it may be immense - no less than 100 km (62 miles) profound.
While orbiting the sun, NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft has taken a look back at Earth, to also find Mars and Pluto in shot.
A modeling paper published this week in Geophysical Research Letters offers a simple but fascinating explanation: partial freezing within a subsurface, liquid water ocean.
Pluto's heart-shaped Sputnik Planum region is only 10 million years old — far younger than the rest of the dwarf planet, according to a new study.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as the largest space-based astronomical observatory with near- and mid-infrared instrumentation, will elucidate many mysterious aspects of comets.
For decades, Alan Stern talked about how important it was to send a spacecraft to Pluto. Those speeches, given to any audience willing to lend an ear, helped build up support for a mission to what was once classified the ninth planet, maintain support once NASA agreed to fly a mission after previous efforts foundered, and to retain interest once New Horizons was on its long cruise to Pluto.
Astronomers have measured the diameter of the dwarf planet Eris by catching it as it passed in front of a faint star. This was seen by telescopes in Chile, including the TRAPPIST telescope at the European Southern Observatory
(PhysOrg.com) -- At this very moment one of the fastest spacecraft ever launched -- NASA
