Why is Pluto no longer a planet? Discover the real reason behind Pluto’s reclassification as a dwarf planet and the science that led to this change.

Pluto isn't alone—it's part of the Kuiper Belt with possibly hundreds of other planet-sized objects. Because Pluto hasn't achieved gravitational dominance in its region, the International Astronomical ...

NASA and ESA monitor asteroid 2024 YR4, which has a 1.2% chance of impacting Earth in 2032. Learn about Near-Earth Objects ...

NASA’s New Horizons mission changed our understanding of the outer solar system. After its famous Pluto flyby, it traveled ...

Computer simulations in 2005 suggest that Charon could have formed as the result of a hypothetical violent collision, when a large Kuiper Belt object struck Pluto at a high speed, destroying itself ...

Some are narrow rings, as in the canonical picture of a ‘belt’ like our Solar System’s Edgeworth-Kuiper belt. But a larger number ... the belts’ vertical thickness – that unobservable objects as large ...

In addition, the objects in the rings would become smaller and smaller over time due to collisions. In the solar system, the Kuiper Belt is a ring-shaped structure consisting of various large ...

Then, a subsequent impact between Charon and a smaller Kuiper Belt object could have produced the debris that formed the system's four small moons: Nix, Styx, Kerberos and Hydra. Learn about the ...

On this date, Jan. 19, 2006, the first probe ever destined to visit Pluto, its moons and other Kuiper belt objects launched from Launch Complex 41 at what is now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Some are narrow rings, as in the canonical picture of a 'belt' like our Solar System's Edgeworth-Kuiper belt ... thickness -- that unobservable objects as large as 140 km to Moon-size are likely ...

"It's a pretty big question since a bunch of other large Kuiper Belt Objects also have large moons, so it seems like this is something that happens in the Kuiper Belt with some frequency ...

“And that has pretty big implications for the Kuiper Belt as a whole, because eight of the 10 largest Kuiper Belt objects are similar to Pluto and Charon.” For more on this research, see “Kiss and ...