This heat, generated through tidal friction as the bodies separated, may have sustained internal activity long after their formation. The implications extend beyond Pluto and Charon. Other binary ...

This “kiss and capture” mechanism offers a fresh perspective on planetary formation, particularly about Pluto and its largest moon Charon. Scientists have long believed that Charon formed ...

“New Horizons shattered a major paradigm of planetary science,” says Alan Stern, the mission’s principal investigator. “Pluto turns out to have as much complexity as Mars or Earth, so much so that I ...

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft conducted the first and only flyby of the Pluto system ... celestial leftovers from the formation of our solar system. For New Horizons, the gathering of more ...

Pluto was discovered at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1930 and was considered our ninth planet until 2006. The International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet ...

The controversy endures over Pluto's true status, but the solar system underdog continues to capture hearts across the globe. Clyde Tombaugh didn't set out to discover Pluto when he sent his ...

(Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how far Pluto is from the sun. The correct number is 3.7 billion miles.) What was discovered in Flagstaff, Arizona, and killed off in Prague?

The puzzle of predicting how three gravitationally bound bodies move in space has challenged mathematicians for centuries, and has most recently been popularized in the novel and television show '3 ...

Pluto, discovered in 1930, was once considered the ninth planet in our solar system. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet because it doesn't meet all ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. This high-resolution image captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft combines blue, red and ...