Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume, by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris.
Many details about Pluto remained unknown until 14 July 2015, when New Horizons flew through the Pluto system and began transmitting data back to Earth. [1] When it did, Pluto was found to have remarkable geologic diversity, with New Horizons team member Jeff Moore saying that it "is every bit as complex as that of Mars". [2]
Pluto and Charon are an example of this type of configuration. [114] There is no consensus on the mechanism of the formation of the rings of Saturn. Although theoretical models indicated that the rings were likely to have formed early in the Solar System's history, [115] data from the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft suggests they formed relatively ...
Instead, Pluto and Charon likely remained much the same after they collided, spinning together to form an object shaped like a cosmic snowman before separating into the binary system they have ...
Formation of Pluto's moons. 1: a Kuiper belt object approaches Pluto; 2: it collides with Pluto; 3: a dust ring forms around Pluto; 4: the debris aggregates to form Charon; 5: Pluto and Charon relax into spherical bodies.
Before New Horizons started sending back data and close-up images of Pluto, we barely knew the dwarf planet. We were like a love-sick fool who could only observe from afar. Now, the New Horizons ...
Based on estimations of the primordial mass required to form Uranus and Neptune, as well as bodies as large as Pluto (see § Mass and size distribution), earlier models of the Kuiper belt had suggested that the number of large objects would increase by a factor of two beyond 50 AU, [64] so this sudden drastic falloff, known as the Kuiper cliff ...
When it comes to landmark achievements in space exploration, today will be a date for the history books as the day humanity reached Pluto for the first time. If everything goes according to plan ...