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Articles on Solar system

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Dramatic, but not apocalyptic. Stanimir G Stoev

Fact over fiction on the ‘apocalyptic’ super blood moon

A rare super blood moon visible from parts of the Earth this month will delight those people lucky enough to see it. But why has this marvel of the solar system got some people so worried?
One of the most detailed images of Pluto captured by New Horizons just before it’s closest approach to the dwarf planet. NASA/APL/SwRI

Beyond Pluto: New Horizons’ mission is not over yet

Now the flypast of Pluto is over the space probe New Horizons will begin sending the data back to Earth. It will take many months but what will it reveal about the dwarf planet?
New Horizons’ look at Pluto’s Charon-facing hemisphere reveals intriguing geologic details that are of keen interest to mission scientists. This image was taken on July 11, 2015, when the spacecraft was 4 million km from Pluto. NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

Pluto and its collision-course place in our solar system

The New Horizons spacecraft is only hours away from its closest approach to Pluto. It’s hoped the brief encounter will help answer many questions about the oddball member of our solar system.
An artist’s impression: MESSENGER flying over a colourful Mercury. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Mercury’s MESSENGER mission comes to a crashing climax

It was the first probe to find water on Mercury, the planet closest to the sun. Its mission nearly over, MESSENGER is about to crash into the planet it’s been observing.
Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountering Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. NASA/Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

Let the people decide new place names on Mercury and Pluto

Who gets to name the craters and features on our planets was once an ad hoc affair. But now the public can have a say with just days left to vote.

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