The image above shows an oblique view of the Norgay and Hillary mountain ranges, and an extensive ice field on Pluto, as photographed by the New Horizons mission. To many people, it would seem that […]
The image above, taken by the New Horizons space probe in July of 2015, shows some detail of an extensive dune field (lower right) that abuts onto a major mountain range (upper left) on the […]
Space is a perilous place for humans to inhabit: microgravity slackens our muscles and upsets our fluid balance, radiation threatens to ravage DNA, and the yawning vacuum outside is a constant threat. However, for other […]
The image above shows rock formations within the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. It was from deep within the rock formations shown here that scientists extracted a 518-metre-long core sample that proved the correlation […]
The dwarf planet designated 136199 Eris is named after the Greek goddess of strife, while its satellite, designated Dysnomia, is named after the goddess of lawlessness, who incidentally was Eris’ daughter. Eris is the most […]
Phobos is the larger and nearest of Mars’ two natural satellites, the other being Deimos. Both moons were discovered a few days apart in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall from the U.S. Naval Observatory […]
The image above shows the dwarf planet 136472 Makemake, which with a diameter roughly 60% that of Pluto is possibly the biggest object in the “classical population” of the Kuiper belt. Upon its discovery by […]
Named after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, but sometimes also known as the Öpik–Oort cloud, this hypothetical cloud of small, icy planetesimals is thought to surround the solar system out to a distance of more […]
Also known as the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt, this structure extends from just beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune to a distance of roughly 50-55 astronomical units from the Sun. Composed primarily of small icy bodies […]
Halley’s Comet, also designated 1P/Halley as it was the first comet to be recognized as periodic, is the only comet that is known to be visible without optical aid during each apparition, which occurs once […]
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