NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft passed a new milestone today, officially becoming the closest spacecraft ever to the distant dwarf planet Pluto! As it continues its trip through interplanetary space, clocking an impressive 35,000 mph (more than twice the speed of the ISS in orbit!) New Horizons is currently in hibernation mode, and has already passed…
Tag: New Horizons
A Giant Among Moons
The largest of Jupiter’s 63 known moons and the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede has twice the mass of our own moon and is even larger than the planet Mercury. Its surface is marked by dark regions which are full of craters and lighter areas lined with ridges. This image was taken by…
Pluto Reinstated?
Will Pluto be reissued its former status as a full-fledged planet? While it won’t necessarily be a topic of debate at next week’s meeting of the International Astronomical Union – the group in charge of, amongst other things, the official naming of all things extraterrestrial and thus the group responsible for voting Pluto off the…
Lights in the Dark 