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Newer Horizons

In Solar System by Brian Koberlein1 Comment

The New Horizons spacecraft is on its way to Pluto. It will fly-by the dwarf planet in July 2015. The spacecraft will have far too much speed to stay near Pluto, so after its visit the craft will continue its journey away from the Sun. Given that Pluto marks the inner edge of the Kuiper belt, it would be nice if New Horizons could explore other Kuiper belt objects.

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Guardian of the Galaxy

In Solar System by Brian Koberlein2 Comments

Many people have an emotional attachment to the planet, and feel somewhat offended that the mean astronomers have declared the tiny world to be not a planet. So what about Pluto? Well, it turns out we now know a great deal more about the planet than we did when you were little, and we’ll soon know even more.

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Biden Time

In Solar System by Brian Koberlein0 Comments

There’s a newly discovered dwarf planet in our solar system, which was recently announced in Nature. It doesn’t even have a name beyond its designation of 2012 VP113, though it has been nicknamed Biden (after the U.S. Vice President) by its discoverers.