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Hot Topic
Solar System
Outer Solar System
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Beyond the Nine Planets
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
03/15/04 |
| The first detection of the faint distant object dubbed "Sedna" beyond Pluto may represent a new planet-like body with a moon. Looking up from Sedna's surface, the Sun would appear in the sky as the size of a pinhead. |
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New Moon System Around Uranus
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
09/26/03 |
| Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have found two of the smallest moons yet in the Uranus satellite system. Measuring a minute eight miles, two of the small moons had previously eluded detection from the much closer view offered from the Voyager 2 flyby of the outer planets. |
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Neptune Starts Forty-Year Spring
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
05/18/03 |
| Long-term observations of Neptune by the Hubble Space Telescope point to a changing season. When spring breaks on the ice-planet, it can last for decades. Cloud cover suggests that the planet's climate is changing. |
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Fire and Ice
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
04/13/03 |
| Pluto, the only planet never visited by a spacecraft, is about to lose that distinction. NASA announced plans to visit the farthest reaches of our solar system, along with a journey to its innermost depths. Missions are now slated for fiery Mercury and to the icy worlds of the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto. |
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Companions for Ice-Planet Neptune
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
01/14/03 |
| New moons have been found orbiting Neptune, one of our solar system's giant ice ball planets. The moons are the first found from ground-based telescopes in more than half a century. |
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Beyond Pluto: Ice Planet
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
10/08/02 |
| The Hubble Telescope astronomers have found beyond Pluto, a distant object with the volume of all the asteroids combined. Unlike the long-contested 'Planet X', this candidate is one of a myriad of exotic, comet-like worlds (otherwise known as 'Kuiper Belt Objects', or KBOs). |
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Voyage of The Voyagers: First Quarter-Century
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| Topic: Outer Solar System |
08/20/02 |
| When initially launched on August 20, 1977, the Voyager missions to Jupiter and Saturn were considered mission-capable for around 5-year lives. But after 25 years, there is a good chance that another 25 years for their tour is on-course. |
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