Earth has a newly-discovered neighbor in the solar system. But the heavenly body – possibly a dwarf planet à la Pluto – isn't a frequent visitor. Located beyond Neptune, its extreme orbit ...

Since Pluto is located so far from the sun, it takes around 248 Earth years for Pluto to orbit the sun. Pluto's orbit around the sun is not only a very long journey, it's also elliptical, resembling a ...

Pluto, with its heart-shaped glacier, as captured by the New Horizons spacecraft Credit - JPL/NASA But Pluto has in many ways only grown in astronomers’ estimations. It is now known to be part of an ...

Pluto's largest moon, Charon, likely formed through a capture event in the early, crowded Kuiper Belt. Three-body encounters and tidal forces allowed Charon to lose energy and become permanently bound ...

Pluto and its moon Charon may have been briefly locked together in a cosmic “kiss”, before the dwarf planet released the smaller body and recaptured it in its orbit. Charon is the largest of Pluto’s ...

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Some 4.5 billion years ago, the dwarf planet Pluto was suddenly joined by a companion. For a brief period – perhaps only hours – they danced as if arm in arm before gently separating, a grand do-si-do ...

An amateur astronomer discovered Pluto 95 years ago today. The former planet will complete an orbit in another 153 years. On February 18, 1930, just two weeks after his 24th birthday, Clyde Tombaugh ...

Brad E Tucker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

Although Seeing in the Dark doesn't directly discuss Pluto, it does celebrate the joy of observing planets. Viewers who watch the show may wonder what happened to Pluto in 2006 and whether any of the ...

For billions of years, Pluto and its largest moon Charon have been facing each other in a mutual tidal lock. Since it’s about half the size of Pluto, the moon and its planet are sometimes referred to ...