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
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.
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
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.
Pluto’s ghoulish cousin, 2015 TG387, lurks in the distant reaches of our own Solar System.
Illustration by Roberto Molar Candanosa and Scott Sheppard, courtesy of Carnegie Institution for Science.
Whether you call it Planet X or Planet Nine, talk of another planet lurking in our Solar system won’t go away. So what does the discovery of a new object – nicknamed “The Goblin” – add to the debate?
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?
The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) at sunset, which observed the OSSOS survey.
wikipedia
Discovery of many icy worlds helps unravel the solar system’s history.
The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope has spotted a new dwarf planet.
Michele Banister
It turns out that a common physical process called diffusion can explain the orbits of faraway minor planets – no need for a Planet Nine.
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.
Ceres’ Haulani Crater shows evidence of landslides from its crater rim.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
The latest data from the Dawn space probe points to underground ice flows and a water vapour atmosphere.
Ceres, as seen by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on December 10, around a crater chain called Gerber Catena.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Dawn’s mission director and chief engineer describes his ‘dream come true’ job – and how the new data coming back from Ceres could unlock some of the secrets of the earliest days of our solar system.
Ceres: a bright spot in planetary exploration.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Is it a dwarf planet, an asteroid or a comet? All of the above? Well, with the latest results about Ceres, researchers aren’t entirely sure anymore.
It’s all happening! New Horizons’ science team members react to crisp shots of Pluto.
NASA/Bill Ingalls
New Horizons mission members have worked on the project for even longer than it’s taken the spacecraft to get to Pluto. They’ve planned, built and researched – and now their efforts are paying off.
What is the bright spot of Ceres? Not long till we find out.
NASA
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft hasn’t reached optimum orbit around Ceres but the data it’s returning has already got scientists excited.
Two views of Ceres acquired by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft ten hours apart on Feb. 12, 2015, from a distance of about 52,000 miles as the dwarf planet rotated.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
With increasing knowledge and familiarity, we’ll no longer be able to identify meaningful criteria to keep these good planets down.
Artist’s impression of New Horizons as it swings past the dwarf planet Pluto, in July 2015.
NASA
While the Mars Rovers and the Rosetta spacecraft will continue to make headlines in 2015, the stage is set for the solar system’s next great mission – the Pluto-bound New Horizons. Discovered in 1930…
A dwarf planet first seen in 2007 has been found to have a surface half-covered in water ice that once flowed from ancient…