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Articles sur Pluto

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Pluto, the largest of the dwarf planets. This image was taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

What is a dwarf planet?

The dwarf planets in our Solar System are cold, dark, far away and full of surprises.
A natural color image of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker)

Curious Kids: Is Pluto a planet or not?

A young reader asks: Is Pluto a planet?
In 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Planetary confusion – why astronomers keep changing what it means to be a planet

Many people are still upset that Pluto was demoted from being a planet. But definitions of various celestial objects are fairly fluid. So whether it is an asteroid or moon or planet is up for debate.
The spectacular layers of blue haze in Pluto’s atmosphere, captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Why Pluto is losing its atmosphere: winter is coming

The dwarf planet Pluto is heading away from the Sun and that’s having a devastating impact on its atmosphere.
Pluto in enhanced color, to illustrate differences in the composition and texture of its surface. NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute

I’ve Always Wondered: How do we know what lies at the heart of Pluto?

Pluto has a density between that of rock and ice – so that immediately suggests the dwarf planet is made of a mix of both. But how do we know?
Pluto is a dwarf planet but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of our attention. NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Planet or dwarf planet: all worlds are worth investigating

A group of astronomers are trying to reclassify Pluto as full ‘planet’. But there are good reasons to leave our classification system alone, and this doesn’t mean Pluto is any less interesting.
New Horizons continues to help unravel the icy dwarf planet’s secrets. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Picture of Pluto further refined by months of New Horizons data

After last summer’s Pluto flyby, the New Horizons spacecraft started sending data back to Earth – at 2 kilobits per second. Here’s some of what scientists have learned so far from that rich, slow cache.
A highlight of 2015 was the number of weird and wonderful exoplanets that were found. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Space in 2015 was out of this world

From a flyby of Pluto to the search for extrasolar planets and gravitational waves, 2015 was a monumental year for space news.

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