As Ceres reaches opposition this week, back garden telescopes will be able to catch it in the constellation of Aquarius! But how do dwarf planets like Ceres fit into our picture of the solar system? Although not as big or flashy as the larger planets, dwarf planets have a lot to offer the world of …
New Horizons First Look at Pluto 5 Years Ago Today
On this day 5 years ago, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft gave us a whole new view on Pluto. The spacecraft spent 9 and a half years swinging past Jupiter and heading to the edge of the solar system, before coming within 7,800 km of the distant dwarf planet. Prior to this, we didn’t know much …