Tech News

Are These Ice Volcanoes on Pluto?

Pluto is home to a pair of spiky mountains with holes on the top. That sounds an awful lot like we just found a pair of cryovolcanoes on the distant frozen world! The informally-named Wright Mons and Piccard Mons look like cryovolcanoes we’ve found on icy moons around the gas giants, volcanoes driven by the … Continued

Tech News

Bask in the Beauty of Pluto at Sunset

Oh, wow. Because the tiny sliver of Pluto at sunset wasn’t enough, now we get the full view of what the New Horizons spacecraft saw just moments after its closest approach. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. The wide-angle view was captured by New Horizons just 15 minutes after the spacecraft’s closest approach on July 14, 2015. … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Explore Pluto in Three Dimensions

Get ready to tease your eyes while exploring the mountains, plains, and craters of Pluto in new three-dimensional images of the strange little world. Stereopairs are classically two images taken of the same thing from the same orientation and approximately the same resolution, but from slightly different angles. The result means that you can use … Continued

Tech News

Meet Kerberos, the Fifth and Final Moon of Pluto

Oh, hello there! Are you the tiniest moon of Pluto, Kerberos? It’s so lovely to finally meet you, and complete our family portrait of all of Pluto’s little moons. The smallest moon of Pluto is Kerberos, this lumpy little mess of rock that looks like two moons got stuck together and now go by the … Continued

Tech News

Meet Styx, the Wee Moon of Pluto

Styx, the faintest moon of Pluto, is absolutely miniscule. This fuzzball of a rock is just a few kilometers across, and is making me squeal in unconstrained glee. Styx is even smaller than we first estimated: the highly-elongated moon is just 7 kilometers (4.5 miles) long and 5 kilometers (3 miles) across. The smaller revised … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

You Can See the Color of the Sky in the Newest Pluto Pictures—and It’s Blue

We finally got a full-color view of Pluto’s skies—and they look awfully familiar. Skies Are Blue NASA just released its first color view of those planetary hazes they’ve been so curious about. And, it turns out that, just like Earth, Pluto has some bright blue skies arching overhead: Image: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI Our own blue skies and … Continued

Tech News

Swoop Across the Complex Geology of Pluto’s Largest Moon

Charon is a dynamic, interesting world in its own right, and even more interesting when directly compared to the dwarf planet Pluto. Soar over the bizarre terrain as you learn more about the weird and wonderful geomorphology of this not-so-little moon. Charon took us by surprise with its collection of complex landscapes. From oddly barren … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

There are Hints of Sunbeams and Fog Buried in Pluto’s Atmosphere

Earlier this month, New Horizons released a batch of absolutely breathtaking photos of Pluto at dusk, including the one above. In these images, particles in Pluto’s thin atmosphere are causing sunlight to scatter, revealing a complex, layered haze. Now, by studying that haze more closely, the New Horizons science team thinks it’s found yet another … Continued

Tech News

New, Insanely High-Resolution Pluto Images Include More Color—and Weird “Snakeskin” Textures

A fresh batch of images straight from the New Horizons downlink give us just what we’ve been waiting for: color views of Pluto! Ridiculously high resolution detail! Strange new snakeskin textures! Plus a first look at how methane is involved in shaping these crazy ice landscapes. These new images from NASA’s deep space probe mean … Continued

Tech News

The Frozen Wastes of Pluto are Eerily Familiar

Of all the things we thought we might see while speeding past Pluto, we weren’t expecting the icy world to look quite this much like our home planet’s frozen poles. This is the science so far of those eerily familiar landscapes. Geomorphology is the study of landforms—what they are, how they’re formed, and why they … Continued

io9

This Is What It Would Be Like to Sit on the Surface of Pluto

Thanks to New Horizons, we know what it would be like to do a Plutonian fly-over. But what about getting even closer? This series of paintings shows what it would be like to don your (hopefully very sturdy) spacesuit, pop open a lawn chair, and take a seat. Images: K.B. Kofoed / NASA Solar System. … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Fly Low Over Pluto in This Incredible Aerial Tour

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took hundreds of images of Pluto this summer, and we’ve been getting them all back in one of the most glorious data dumps astro nerds have ever borne witness to. But for some of us, still images simply aren’t enough. We want to fly over Pluto, too, damnit! Thankfully, NASA understands … Continued

Tech News

Sunset on Pluto is Beyond Gorgeous in Latest Photos from New Horizons

New Horizons released a fresh batch of photographs from its collection today, and I’m in love all over again. Bask in the glory of a hazy dusk, then join me to dive into the awesome new science of weather on Pluto. This gorgeous oblique panorama was captured by the New Horizons spacecraft from 18,000 kilometers … Continued

io9

NASA Just Released This Amazing New Set of Up-Close Pluto Pictures

NASA released a new (and gorgeous) set of Pluto pictures from its recent New Horizons fly-by—and they’re our best look yet at some of the strange terrain of the erstwhile planet. Top image: Pluto overlook / NASA Here’s the full set of Pluto pictures—plus one bonus planetary portrait of Charon, included at the very bottom. … Continued

Tech News

This is Exactly What New Horizons saw Zipping by Pluto

When the New Horizons spacecraft raced past Pluto this summer, it constantly snapped photographs both coming and going. This is exactly what it saw while zooming past the frozen dwarf planet. Whoa. We’ve seen fan-art of what the probe might have seen in a simulation interpolated from public image releases. But now NASA is providing … Continued

Tech News

This is a Single, Endless Day on Pluto

The New Horizons spacecraft photographed the day side of the dwarf planet Pluto during its flyby this July. Here’s a full rotation from the iconic heart to the squibbly backside that will taunt us with mysteries until the next time we visit the far reaches of the solar system. The New Horizons spacecraft flew past … Continued

Tech News

Every Place We Used to Think Was a Planet (Until We Knew Better)

We once considered the Sun a planet, and it took finding Uranus to decide that moons should really be their own category of thing. These are all the places in our solar system that were once planets—but now have far more suitable names. The Sun and the Moon When the Ptolemaic model of an Earth-centric … Continued

io9

Watch the Best Simulation Yet of the New Horizons Pluto Flyby

Using data collected by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, Icelandic imaging wizard Björn Jónsson has produced a stunning animated visualization of the now historic Pluto flyby. The time covered in the simulated flyby is from 09:35 to 13:35 on July 14, 2015. The closest approach happened around 11:50. “Pluto’s atmosphere is included and should be fairly … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Here Are All the Planets You Can Now Vote to Name Online

Naming a planet used to be an honor reserved for the astronomer who discovered it, but these days, we’re finding too many to keep up. Now, the International Astronomical Union has opened the sacred process up to the internet, bless their brave souls. To date, there are more than 1,000 confirmed planets beyond our solar … Continued

io9

Compare All The Objects Of The Solar System

Yesterday, we looked at an interactive infographic on the relative orbits of everything in the solar system. Today, let’s compare the planets to one another. This site shows us how all of the solar system’s planets (and Pluto) stack up. This is another really neat tool that drives home just how diverse or solar system … Continued