Free Republic

Far beyond Pluto, out where the Sun is only a pinpoint of pale light, a frozen world has been found on the dark fringes of the solar system. Astronomers say it is by far the most distant object known to orbit the Sun and the largest one to be detected since the discovery of Pluto in 1930. With one discovery, it seems, the solar system has gotten much bigger, glimpses of its outer reaches bringing a sense of reality to what had been a remote frontier of hypothesis. And perhaps it has gotten stranger, too. "There's absolutely nothing else like...

WASHINGTON (Rooters) - Astronomers have discovered the coldest and most distant object ever found in the solar system, a dark and frigid world a bit smaller than Pluto and three times farther away. "The new "planetoid," named Hillary after an Inuit goddess who imagined Arctic sea creatures, appears so small that you could completely block it out with the head of a pin," said Mike Brone, an astronomer at California Institute of Technology, who led the research team. Hillary is one of the reddest objects in the solar system, comparable to the Glorious Revolution of 1917, and takes years to...

IDAHO FALLS -- A team of Idaho scientists is working to ensure space exploration takes place in the future. The experts at Argonne National Laboratory-West are developing batteries called radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Their budget for the next 18 months is estimated at $21 million. Department of Energy officials moved the nation's space battery program from Ohio to Idaho last year because of security concerns stemming from the September eleventh terrorist attacks. The plutonium in the batteries produces heat, which can power spacecraft for decades. NASA plans to send an exploration device to Pluto in 2006.

Pluto, the most distant of the nine planets in our solar system, has piqued the curiosity of astronomers once again. It seems the planet's atmosphere is expanding as it travels away from the sun, rather than contracting as expected. The only planet yet to have been visited by spacecraft, Pluto is relatively poorly known. But when it is aligned with the stars just so, observations from Earth are possible. Analyses of data collected last year during one of these rare configurations revealed the surprising atmospheric findings, which were published today in the journal Nature. Because Pluto is currently journeying swiftly...

Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission Moves Ahead; NASA Approves Full-Scale Development for APL-Managed New Horizons The solar system's farthest known planetary outpost is closer to getting its first visitor. This week NASA gave The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Southwest Research Institute and their partners the go-ahead to start full development of the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to launch in January 2006, swing past Jupiter for a gravity boost and scientific studies in 2007, and reach Pluto and its moon, Charon, as early as summer 2015. The arrival date depends...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 September 11 Pluto & Charon Eclipse a Triple Star Credit: NACO Team, 8.2-meter VLT (Yepun), ESO Explanation: Occasionally, a planet in our Solar System will pass in front of a bright star. Since stars and planets take up so little space on the sky, such events are quite rare. Two months ago, however, Pluto and its large moon Charon passed in front of a comparatively bright triple...

Full Impact Of Contour Mission Destruction Remains To Be Seen by Bruce Moomaw Los Angeles - Aug 26, 2002 The loss of the Contour comet probe will soon put the investigative spotlight on the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland as a NASA appointed panel seeks to find out what went wrong with the 180 million dollar probe as it fired its main engine to leave Earth orbit on August 15. In recent years, as APL has shift from a dependency on naval research contracts, the lab has sought to carve out a new role...

(CNN) -- Pluto could be experiencing a warming trend on the surface and a cooling trend in the atmosphere, according to planetary scientists. Astronomers made the deduction based on observations of a recent stellar eclipse when Pluto passed in front of the light of star P126A. When the planet eclipsed another star in 1998, the starlight went out quickly. During the July event, the light dimmed slowly as Pluto passed in front. By studying the starlight, scientists estimated the density, pressure and temperature of Pluto's atmosphere. "In the last 14 years, one or more changes have occurred," said Marc Buie...

Hubble Telescope Photographs Seven Objects Traveling In Pairs Beyond Pluto © 2002 by Linda Moulton Howe This NASA composite picture shows the apparent orbit in blue of one member of a pair of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) known as WW31. The six fainter points of light are Hubble photographs of WW31 as it moved relative to another object which is the larger, brighter light. The two objects revolve around a common center of gravity, like a pair of waltzing skaters. Astronomers assembled this picture from six separate Hubble Telescope exposures taken from July to September 2001, December 2001 and January...

OUTER PLANETSPlutonium's Promise Will Find Pluto Left Out In The Cold In the decades ahead nuclear propulsion systems will underpin an expanded outerplanets exploration program. In the meantime, one final chemical propulsion mission to the last unvisited planet remains an urgent priority before pluto's atmosphere collapses  by Ralph L. McNutt, Jr.  Washington - Feb 20, 2002 In the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2003 NASA has announced a major new technology development initiative in nuclear power and nuclear propulsion. A renewed commitment by NASA to develop nuclear propulsion for deep-space travel can only be applauded. But there are many popular...