Pluto

‘Penitentes on steroids’: Scientists solve enigma of Pluto’s massive ice blades

Pluto is an intriguing little world, full of geological surprises, as New Horizons revealed back in 2015. This cold, remote body was expected to be pretty much inactive, but instead we saw a place with nitrogen ice “seas” and glaciers, tall mountains of water ice, …

Read More‘Penitentes on steroids’: Scientists solve enigma of Pluto’s massive ice blades

‘Hopping around’ on Pluto? Exciting lander mission concept presented at NASA symposium

In 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft provided our first up-close look at Pluto and its moons, helping to transform our knowledge about these small, cold worlds in the outer fringes of the Solar System. The only downside, if there were one even, was that it …

Read More‘Hopping around’ on Pluto? Exciting lander mission concept presented at NASA symposium

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

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