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The Latest Breaking News from the Kuiper Belt

Pluto and the Love, Hate, Longing: What Our Relationship With a Demoted Planet Says About Us

We Gave It a Name, So It Became OursPluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, a 24-year-old farm boy from Kansas working at the Lowell Observatory. An 11-year-old British girl named Venetia Burney suggested the name. Her grandfather passed it along. The International Astronomical Union accepted it. And just…

Times Life

Comet crash or ice volcano? Scientists are stumped by a secret world past Pluto, and it may be wearing a secret atmosphere

2002 XV93 atmosphere mystery stuns space scientists as a distant Kuiper Belt object reveals unexpected signs of activity. The 470-kilometer icy world challenges old Solar System theories. Researchers believe possible gas, dust, impacts, or icy volcanoes may explain this rare cosmic discovery. The finding shows even small worlds can hold…

The Economic Times

Where did Neptune's mysterious moon Nereid come from? It may be the only survivor of the planet's violent history

Neptune's moon Nereid might be the only satellite surviving from the planet's original system, researchers report in a new study.

Space

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Mystery of snowman-shaped space objects cracked

Research adds weight to theory Arrokoth’s two lobes produced by gravitational collapse – and reveals process

The Guardian - UK

'Planet Y' theory hints at hidden Earth-size world lurking in the solar system — and it could be much closer to us than 'Planet Nine'

A new study has proposed the existence of Planet Y, an alternative Planet Nine candidate that is smaller and closer to Earth than the hypothetical Planet X, which astronomers have been hunting for almost a decade. However, the evidence for this newly theorized world is "not definitive."

LiveScience

Why does Pluto have such a weird orbit?

The dwarf planet has a strange orbit and tilt — what gives?

LiveScience

What we know about the search for ‘Planet Nine’ in our solar system

The idea of a massive undiscovered planet has been around since before the discovery of Pluto in the 1930s

The Independent UK

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The hunt for ‘planet nine’: why there could still be something massive at the edge of the Solar System

Is there a massive undiscovered planet on the outer reaches of the Solar System? The idea has been around since before the discovery of Pluto in the 1930s. Labelled as planet X, prominent astronomers had put it forward as an explanation for Uranus’s orbit, which drifts from the path of…

The Conversation

What are dwarf planets — and how many are there?

How many dwarf planets are there in our solar system? The recent discovery of 2017 OF201 makes the tally anywhere between five and 18, plus hundreds of potentially undiscovered ones, depending on whom you ask.

LiveScience

Scientists found a possible new dwarf planet — it could spell bad news for Planet 9 fans

A newly found object could be a dwarf planet that contradicts the Planet Nine hypothesis.

Space

Astronomers identify a celestial '3-body problem' lurking in the outer solar system

New research suggests that a binary pair of Kuiper Belt objects, known as the Altjira system, is actually made up of three separate bodies orbiting one another in a complex triad. This rare orbital configuration is often referred to as the "three-body problem."

LiveScience

Hubble Telescope discovers a new '3-body problem' puzzle among Kuiper Belt asteroids (video)

It's a new type of three-body problem for astronomers, who used the Hubble Space Telescope to determine that twin asteroids in the Kuiper Belt could be triplets.

Space

Leaving Pluto in the dust: New Horizons probe gearing up for epic crossing of 'termination shock'

NASA's New Horizons Pluto probe is gearing up to cross the "termination shock," an exotic boundary in the outer solar system, as early as 2027.

Space

Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later

On the 95th anniversary of its discovery, Pluto remains one of the most beloved and enigmatic worlds in our solar system, whether you call it a planet or not.

Space

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Salon

Pluto captured its moon with a kiss

Research on Charon's cosmic dance with Pluto could have implications for other objects in the Kuiper Belt

Space

How Pluto captured its largest moon Charon with a 10-hour icy 'kiss'

Pluto may have got romantic to capture its largest moon, colliding and engaging in a passionate but icy 10 hour kiss with Charon billions of years ago.

Space

'There are lots of mysteries in our backyard': Revised solar system chemistry explains long-standing puzzles

Pluto and other large bodies in the Kuiper Belt are surprisingly rich in rock rather than ice. It may be because the early solar system consisted of much more carbon than previously thought, a new study suggests.

Space

Saturn gets its 1st confirmed Trojan asteroid — but it might be stolen

Saturn has finally joined the solar system's other giant planets in possessing a Trojan asteroid, but it may have stolen it. The bouncing asteroid seems to have originated in the Kuiper belt.

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Space

2nd Kuiper Belt? Our solar system may be much larger than thought

Eleven objects found at the extremities of the solar system could mark the location of a 'Kuiper Belt 2.'

Top News

Scientists Discover Possible Second Kuiper Belt Beyond Neptune's Orbit

Scientists discover potential evidence of two Kuiper Belts in the outer Solar System, hinting at a breakthrough in planetary formation studies.

LiveScience

8 strange objects that could be hiding in the outer solar system

The outer solar system is a vast and mysterious place that could be harboring hidden objects we know almost nothing about — from the elusive Planet Nine and baby black holes to interstellar visitors and "planet killer" asteroids.

LiveScience

Planet Nine: Is the search for this elusive world nearly over?

Astronomers have been scouring the outer solar system for signs of a hypothetical ninth planet for almost a decade, without success. However, we may finally be on the cusp of finding it, experts say.

Space

Icy asteroids help the James Webb Space Telescope uncover Neptune's history

By honing in on Mors-Somnus, a binary pair of icy asteroids that originated within the Kuiper Belt, the James Webb Space Telescope has uncovered secrets surrounding the evolution of Neptune and other icy bodies.

Space

Our solar system map may need an update — the Kuiper belt could be way bigger

How a cosmic dust storm is helping New Horizons to redraw the map of the outer solar system.

Inverse

Mysterious “Planet Nine” May Actually Be a Missing Earth-sized World

A recent study proposes a totally different version of Planet Nine, but which one is really out there?

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