Blogs
Blog Archive
Pluto's atmosphere does not collapse
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/09/06 11:07 CDT | 1 comments
Just four months ago I posted about a paper recently published by Leslie Young and coauthors that described three possible scenarios for Pluto's atmosphere. Yesterday, Cathy Olkin, Leslie Young, and coauthors posted a preprint on arXiv that says that only one of those scenarios can be true. And it's a surprising one. The title of their paper says it all: "Pluto's atmosphere does not collapse."
New Horizons: Late in Cruise, and a Binary Ahoy
Posted by Alan Stern on 2013/08/24 09:16 CDT | 2 comments
New Horizons has just completed a summer of intensive activities and entered hibernation on Aug. 20. The routine parts of the activities included thorough checkouts of all our backup systems (result: they work fine!) and of all our scientific instruments (they work fine too!).
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/16 11:24 CDT | 4 comments
In which the fifth graders of Kipp Heartwood Academy argue the competing sides in the is-Pluto-a-planet debate through the medium of rap.
Pluto on the Eve of Exploration by New Horizons: Is there an ocean, or not?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/08/02 08:00 CDT | 5 comments
Does Pluto have an ocean under its ice? If it doesn't now, did it ever have one? How will we know?
Pluto on the Eve of Exploration by New Horizons: A problem of cartography
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/30 05:44 CDT | 6 comments
Last Thursday at the Pluto Science Conference there was a surprising and interesting talk by Amanda Zangari, who pointed out a serious problem with Pluto cartography.
Movie SciFi With Real Science? What a Concept!
Europa Report is available on demand and online, and in theaters on August 2
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/07/30 10:14 CDT | 1 comments
This week's Planetary Radio features the new indy film that relies on the best available science to create a thrilling and inspiring human mission to Jupiter's moon.
Posted by Bill Dunford on 2013/07/29 01:18 CDT | 4 comments
Pushing back the frontier, and filling in the blank spaces on the map.
Pluto on the Eve of Exploration by New Horizons: Small moons, dust, surfaces, interiors
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/24 09:04 CDT | 5 comments
My roundup from notes on the day's presentations on dust in the Pluto system and the surfaces and interiors of Pluto and Charon.
Remembering the Pluto Campaign: A Success Story
The Society Worked for Years to Help Launch a Mission to Pluto
Posted by Casey Dreier on 2013/07/22 02:11 CDT | 3 comments
The New Horizons mission to Pluto survived many near-death encounters with cancellation during its development. The Planetary Society worked the whole time to ensure it would launch.
New names for Pluto's little moons Kerberos and Styx; and a new moon for Neptune
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/07/15 01:37 CDT | 4 comments
Pluto's moons, formerly known as "P4" and "P5," are now named Kerberos and Styx; I thought I'd help place them into context with a little help from Cassini. Also, Neptune now has a 14th known moon.
New Horizons: Encounter Planning Accelerates
Posted by Alan Stern on 2013/05/17 10:18 CDT | 4 comments
Back in 2005 and 2006, when Pluto’s second and third moons (Nix and Hydra) were discovered, searches by astronomers for still more moons didn’t reveal any. So the accidental discovery of Pluto’s fourth moon by the Hubble Space Telescope in mid-2011 raised the possibility that the hazards in the Pluto system might be greater than previously anticipated.
Pluto's seasons and what New Horizons may find when it passes by
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/02 03:42 CDT | 5 comments
New Horizons might see a Pluto with a northern polar cap, a southern polar cap, or both caps, according to work by Leslie Young.
When will New Horizons have better views of Pluto than Hubble does?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/18 04:22 CST | 7 comments
Last week, I posted an explainer on why Hubble's images of galaxies show so much more detail than its images of Pluto. Then I set you all a homework problem: when will New Horizons be able to see Pluto better than Hubble does? Here's the answer.
Why can Hubble get detailed views of distant galaxies but not of Pluto?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/14 12:37 CST | 15 comments
How come Hubble's pictures of galaxies billions of light years away are so beautifully detailed, yet the pictures of Pluto, which is so much closer, are just little blobs? I get asked this question, or variations of it, a lot. Here's an explainer.
New Contest: Name the Moons of Pluto!
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/11 11:41 CST | 15 comments
The discoverers of Pluto's fourth and fifth moons are inviting the public to vote on (and write in candidates for) their formal names. Voting closes in two weeks.
Alan Stern Returns to Planetary Radio
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/11/27 04:08 CST
The New Horizons Pluto mission PI provides an update, and introduces his new public project called Uwingu.
DPS 2012: Double occultation by Pluto and Charon
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/26 03:12 CDT | 5 comments
A few talks at last week's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting discussed observations of a double occultation -- both Pluto and Charon passing in front of the same star.
A fifth moon for Pluto, and a possible hazard for New Horizons
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/07/16 02:55 CDT | 7 comments
Pluto is now known to have at least five moons (Charon, Nix, Hydra, P4, and the newly discovered P5), and its burgeoning population might pose a risk to New Horizons during its flyby, three years from now.
Full Free Intro Astronomy Class Now Online
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/05/22 02:57 CDT | 1 comments
Bruce Betts' complete CSUDH Intro Astronomy and Planetary Science class is now available online. Find out how to access it, and go behind the scenes.
Where are the big Kuiper belt objects?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/02/16 05:35 CST | 6 comments
Earlier today I wrote a post about how to calculate the position of a body in space from its orbital elements. I'm trying to get a big-picture view of what's going on in trans-Neptunian space.
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