On July 14, 2015, a spacecraft flew by Pluto for the first time! NASA's New Horizons spacecraft spent 9.5 years making the ...

“Pluto is like a planet embryo,” said Robert Fesen, an astronomy professor at Dartmouth College. “It’s the original material of the solar system, in a state that is far closer to its ...

Pluto was demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006. So why is its status still so controversial today? ... It must have enough mass to draw itself into a round shape.

Calling Pluto a planet is like a cartoon solar system all over again.” If this feels like déjà vu, it’s because the Pluto flyby has predictably revived a bitter debate about how best to ...

As the world marvels at the first-ever close-up images of Pluto beamed to Earth this week, it is a reminder of a sharp global divide: Those with nine-planet childhoods vs. those now growing up in ...

Much as they did in 2006 when Pluto was demoted, by the International Astronomical Union, from the official list of planets. Pluto was discovered 90 years ago Tuesday, on Feb. 18, 1930.

For the better part of a century, we believed there were nine planets in our solar system, with Pluto being the farthest from the sun. Since the discovery of more Pluto-sized dwarf planets, that ...

Oh my gosh, that’s really rude, first off. But then, we were talking about other stuff and it made me feel kind of bad for the kids who have moved on, who know Pluto is not a planet and it’s fine.

For decades, Pluto thrived in its role as the ninth major planet of our solar system, even though it was tiny compared to the others (just one-fifth the diameter of Earth) and so far away (on ...

Everything you know about Pluto is probably wrong. Just ask a kid. Kids are much more up-to-date with knowledge about space and dinosaurs and other cool stuff we grown-ups haven’t read about in ...

Never again can Pluto be the ninth planet. Or the littlest planet. Or the most distant planet. But does that make Pluto a non-planet? No way. Even before Pluto was discovered, the solar system was ...

Poor Pluto was demoted, ... but it could soon be returned triumphantly to full planet status. ... the IAU decided to draw up the first scientific definition of the term planet.