The largest of Pluto’s five moons, Charon, was discovered 40 years ago today by James Christy and Robert Harrington at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona – only about six miles from where Pluto itself was discovered at Lowell Observatory. They weren’t even looking for satellites of Pluto – Christy was trying to refine Pluto’s orbit around the Sun.
Images and video of the daylight meteor seen over Russia on June 21. The small asteroid exploded in the air; fragments may have reached Earth. Plus … why are so many large meteors seen over Russia?
The last US mission to the Moon, Apollo 17, blasted off shortly before midnight on 7 December 1972. Its crew spent three days on the lunar surface, collecting samples and conducting experiments.
There might be a ninth planet lurking at the edges of our solar system.
A new study validates Einstein’s theory of general relativity in a distant galaxy for the first time. This study supports our current understanding of gravity and provides more evidence for the existence of dark matter and dark energy — two mysterious concepts that scientists know about only indirectly by observing their effects on cosmic objects. Albert
Explosive volcanic eruptions are the likely source of the Medusae Fossae Formation, a massive, unusual deposit of soft rock near Mars’ equator, with undulating hills and abrupt mesas, according to a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
In 1966, the Air Force sent an uncrewed space station into orbit
In March of 2015, NASA’s Dawn mission became the first spacecraft to visit the protoplanet Ceres, the largest body in the Main Asteroid Belt.
A swarm of thousands of black holes may surround the giant black hole at the heart of our galaxy, a new study finds.
