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Hot Topic
Solar System
Outer Solar System
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Kuiper Belt Adding to its Notches
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
10/07/05 |
| The newly discovered 10th planet, 2003 UB313, is looking more and more like one of the solar system's major players. It has the heft of a real planet (latest estimates put it at about 20 percent larger than Pluto), a catchy code name (Xena, after the TV warrior princess). |
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Santa et al.
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
09/10/05 |
| When planetary scientists announced on July 29 that they had discovered a new planet larger than Pluto, the news overshadowed the two other objects the group had also found. |
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Tenth Planet
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
07/31/05 |
| A planet larger than Pluto has been discovered in the outlying regions of the solar system. The planet is a typical member of the Kuiper belt, but its sheer size in relation to the nine planets already known means that it can only be classified as a planet. |
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Charon's Occultation
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
07/23/05 |
| In a feat of astronomical and terrestrial alignment, a group of scientists from MIT and Williams College recently succeeded in observing distant Pluto's tiny moon, Charon, hide a star. Such an event had been seen only once before, by a single telescope 25 years ago, and then not nearly as well. |
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Voyager I Reaches Final Frontier
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
05/24/05 |
| NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered the solar system's final frontier. It is entering a vast, turbulent expanse, where the sun's influence ends and the solar wind crashes into the thin gas between stars. |
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Pluto's Pair
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
02/01/05 |
| The evolution of Kuiper Belt objects, Pluto and its lone moon Charon may have something in common with Earth and our single Moon: a giant impact in the distant past. |
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Planetoids Beyond Pluto
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
12/30/04 |
| Counting down the top ten astrobiology stories for 2004 highlights the accomplishments of those exploring Mars, Saturn, comets, and planets beyond Pluto. Number six in this countdown was the discovery of potential heat sources for ice beyond Pluto, an important finding if water is considered the key ingredient to understanding biological probabilities elsewhere in the solar system. |
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What Melted the Ice Planet?
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
12/10/04 |
| In October 2002, the Hubble Space Telescope first spotted an icy planetoid beyond Pluto. Named after an American Indian god, Quaoar, the planetoid should be far colder based on its distance from the sun than it appears to be. |
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Vision of Neptune's Triton
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
12/09/04 |
| Beyond the gas giants of Saturn and Jupiter, NASA plans its vision to explore the ice giants, like Neptune. While Titan attracts all the attention of moon watchers near Saturn, Triton intrigues those looking near Neptune. |
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Stormy Uranus
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
11/11/04 |
| As the smallest of the gas giants, Uranus was thought from the Voyager probe flyby to have a relatively inactive surface. Stunning new images reveal storms the size of entire terrestrial continents and a faint ring. |
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