On February 18, 1930 Clive Tombaugh noticed a faint dot jumping backwards and forwards in his blink comparator plates, we know know that dot as Pluto. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has the story of Pluto's discovery in Clyde Tombaugh's own words. Go have a read of this fascinating moment in astronomical history, as seen by the man who witnessed it.
Posted by Astroblog
Recent Hubble images of Pluto are showing us a world that may be unexpectedly active on the surface. Such a small object so far away that takes so very long to revolve around the sun should not have very many ways to exercise such rapid changes upon its surface. Scientists studying Pluto say that the
Posted by wanderingspace
Despite Mike Brown's best efforts, Pluto is not dead (yet). These cool new images of the tiny non-planet taken with the Hubble Space Telescope show that it is by no means a boring lump of icy rock. When comparing these images, taken in 2002-2003, to a previous set dating back to 1994, scientists noticed some
Posted by SarahAskew
On Friday (5 Feb 2010) NASA released the most detailed images yet taken of Pluto. The photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) show the dwarf planet's icy, mottled surface undergoing seasonal changes - the surface has become much redder and the illuminated northern hemisphere is getting brighter. The changes are probably due to surface ice sublimating to gas on the sunlit pole and then freezing again on the opposite pole as Pluto moves into the next phase of its 248-year seasonal cycle.
Posted by Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Hubble Images of Pluto: Image credit M. Buie /NASA, ESA, Southwest Research InstituteOften you see illustrations of Pluto as being white, but really, it's red. This is just one more link showing the Pluto is a big Kuiper Belt object (these are red too, due to UV action on the organic compounds in their ices). The black parts in the image probably represent organics that have been polymerized into taryy gunk. Back in 1994 Hubble took some images of Pluto and made a map of the distribution of redd
Posted by Astroblog
Pluto-philes (and astronomers, too) have always bemoaned the fact that the best image of the principal dwarf planet wase just a fuzzy, pixelized haze. Bemoan no more. The most detailed look to date of the entire surface of Pluto has been constructed from hundreds of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The images
Posted by Universe Today
Pity poor Pluto. The debate over its planethood has caused much consternation over the years. Part of the problem is that it's so dinky and so far away! If it were closer, or bigger, we almost certainly wouldn't be having this debate. But whether or not you think Pluto should be part of the gang or
Posted by Bad Astronomy
Die NASA veröffentlichte heute die detailliertesten Karten, die bislang vom Zwergplaneten Pluto angefertigt wurden. Die für diese Karten verwendeten Aufnahmen des Weltraumteleskops Hubble zeigen eine eisige, gefleckte Welt in braungoldenen Farben, die sich im Lauf der Jahreszeiten verändern. New Hubble Maps of Pluto Show Surface Changes
Posted by Solscape
New Hubble images of Pluto have revealed that the surface of the dwarf planet changed between 2000 and 2002.
Posted by Orbiting Frog
... had really always thought it would be so cool to do a poster set with great design for each of the planets. I actually started a design for the Cassini at Saturn mission, but have yet to complete it. Sure enough someone comes along and knocks the whole system out in one fantastic series.
Posted by wanderingspace
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