Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) are icy bodies that vary widely in size, from large dwarf planets like Pluto and Eris—each ...

As Stern told reporters Monday, “The Pluto system is enchanting in its strangeness, its alien beauty.” The newest pictures, from the actual flyby, won’t be transmitted until well afterward ...

This story appears in the July 2015 issue of National Geographic magazine. Small, cold, and absurdly far away, Pluto has always been selfish with its secrets. Since its discovery in 1930 ...

To get somewhere in outer space, you can’t exactly drive in a straight line. Orbits are tricky things, and sending a probe to ...

Pluto is probably best known for being a demoted planet. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union stripped it of its ...

Sputnik Planitia is a white basin measuring 750 by 1,250 miles near Pluto's equator that was discovered during the flyby. Although the dwarf planet is covered in an ice shell, that thins ...

a previously unknown ancestor to humans and the Pluto flyby, which allowed scientists to get an up-close view of Pluto and its moons for the first time ever. Science's John Travis explained that ...

The flyby, set to occur in the early morning of January 1, 2019, will be the second for New Horizons, following its historic 2015 Pluto flyby. It will also be the furthest flyby from Earth ever ...

Pluto was identified in 1930, but by 1994, it was still little more than a blurry pixelated smudge on astronomers’ screens. Today, we marvel at its icy plains, towering mountains, and stunningly ...

As science teams and researchers spent 2017 pouring through the wealth of data returned by the New Horizons spacecraft during its historic flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto in July 2015, the ...