Earth’s North Sea coastline, including the Stacks of Duncansby in Caithness.
David Rothery
The Solar System could be awash with oceans, not on the surface but hidden inside the most surprising bodies
Io has volcanism.
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Jupiter’s moon Io has more than 400 active volcanoes on its surface.
Pluto was recategorized from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006.
(Shutterstock)
A curious kid asks: Why does it matter if Pluto is a planet or a dwarf planet?
Pluto, the largest of the dwarf planets. This image was taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
The dwarf planets in our Solar System are cold, dark, far away and full of surprises.
Simulated image of Pluto’s Wright Mons volcano.
Nature Communications
Pluto has recently active icy volcanoes, that have erupted water ice.
Ligeia Mare on Titan.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell -
From the tallest cliff in the solar system to its largest impact basin, geological processes on other worlds are very similar to those on our own planet.
Pluto, with its basin Sputnik Planitia on the right.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker
Pluto began hot inside, study of its surface fractures suggests
An artist’s concept of a hypothetical planet with a distant sun.
(Shutterstock)
In the search for the hypothetical Planet Nine, scientists may have uncovered another explanation for the patterns in the orbits of Kuiper Belt objects.
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)
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
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
The dwarf planet Pluto is heading away from the Sun and that’s having a devastating impact on its atmosphere.
Where are the smallest of the icy worlds we thought resided in the Kuiper belt?
ESO/Flickr
There’s a mysterious lack of small bodies beyond Neptune, but a ‘snowman-shaped’ object may help explain why.
A telescope pointed at the skies above Senegal to capture the stellar occultation.
François Colas, Observatoire de Paris, Insititut de Mécanique Celeste et de Calcul des Ephémérides
Senegal has made great strides in astronomy and planetary sciences in recent years.
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
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?
3D render of Pluto.
Shutterstock/NASA
Images from New Horizons spacecraft provide more evidence about the surface of Pluto.
Pluto is a dwarf planet but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of our attention.
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
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.
Will the moon move from servant to equal?
Gregory H. Revera/wikipedia
Scientists first started disagreeing about whether the moon should be a planet in Galileo’s day.
Pluto seen by New Horizons.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Astronomers are excited about sub-surface oceans in the solar system, as they may support life. Now Pluto joins the club.
Charon’s north pole, imaged by New Horizons.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Trapped gas could be tainting the north pole of Pluto’s moon Charon dark red.
New Horizons continues to help unravel the icy dwarf planet’s secrets.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
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.