Fly over Pluto and Charon for second anniversary of New Horizons’ historic visit

Pluto is a world of wonders, with vast glaciers and plains of nitrogen ice, mountains of water ice capped with methane snow, ancient rivers and lakes of liquid nitrogen, massive “ice spikes” reaching 500 metres tall (similar to Penitentes on Earth but much larger), a possible subsurface ocean and a hazy blue atmosphere. Photo Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

It was two years ago today that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft became the first-ever probe to visit Pluto in the cold, outer fringes of the Solar System. To help celebrate the occasion, NASA has posted a new video of the epic flyby, when the spacecraft soared over the tall mountains and vast icy plains of this small but active world.

Read MoreFly over Pluto and Charon for second anniversary of New Horizons’ historic visit

Grand Final part 4: Cassini completes eighth ring crossing, and a ‘tour of Saturn’s moons’

A haunting raw image view of Saturn and its rings taken on June 7, 2017 by Cassini. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

As Cassini’s “Grand Finale” journey continues, the spacecraft has completed its eighth dive past the innermost rings of Saturn (known as a ring crossing), and there are now just under 100 days left until it plunges into the giant planet’s atmosphere, never to come back. Although time may be running out, Cassini continues to devour every drop of science data that it can, which builds upon other data that has transformed our view of the Saturnian system – a complex array of worlds like a miniature Solar System. This includes, of course, more fantastic images of Saturn and its rings and moons. The detail seen in the rings is nothing short of staggering.

Read MoreGrand Final part 4: Cassini completes eighth ring crossing, and a ‘tour of Saturn’s moons’

New moon discovered by Hubble orbiting third largest dwarf planet in Kuiper Belt

Two images of dwarf planet 2007 OR10 from Hubble, taken a year apart, showing the small moon. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/C. Kiss (Konkoly Observatory)/J. Stansberry (STScI)

Moons are exceedingly common in the Solar System – Jupiter alone has 67! But smaller planets do as well of course, except for Mercury and Venus, and even some dwarf planets and asteroids have moons. This includes dwarf planets such as Pluto, which has five moons despite being so small itself. Most of the larger dwarf planets are now known to possess moons, and now another one has been discovered, by the Hubble Space Telescope and two other telescopes, orbiting the third largest known dwarf planet known as 2007 OR10.

Read MoreNew moon discovered by Hubble orbiting third largest dwarf planet in Kuiper Belt