How Is Pluto Still Active?
The New Horizons spacecraft sent back images from its 2015 flyby of Pluto showing clear evidence for recent and ongoing geologic activity. But how is this possible on such a tiny world so far from the Sun? Deep in the dwarf planet’s core, radioactive elements decaying over the eons continue to heat the interior enough to maintain a subsurface layer of liquid water that can push on and shift the crust above. This causes polygonal cracks the surface, builds mountain ranges, and creates icy volcanoes with watery lava. Similar processes driven by internal radioactivity are happening on rocky planets and large moons, though for some, like Earth, the liquid layer is made of molten rock, not water. On the surface, interactions between ices on the ground, the atmosphere, and sunlight produce a frigid climate that creates active glaciers of nitrogen ice and shifting dunes made of methane snow, erasing many small recent craters. Read More
Latest News About Pluto and The Kuiper Belt
SwRI scientists find evidence of geothermal activity within icy dwarf planets
February 15, 2024
JWST observes potentially young methane deposits on surfaces of Eris and Makemake Read more
A guide to Haumea, the rugby ball dwarf planet
January 6, 2024
A guide to the dwarf planet known to have its own ring system Read more
How many planets could be in the Kuiper Belt?
December 31, 2023
A recent study investigates the potential existence of Mars-sized planets Read more
Surface volatile composition as evidence for hydrothermal processes lasting longer in Triton’s interior than Pluto’s
December 12, 2023
Ocean worlds are among the most compelling topics of astrobiology Read more
Are Eris and Pluto different on the inside?
November 21, 2023
Interestingly, the clues to the differences at their hearts come from the moons of each world Read more
Arrokoth’s mounds hint at how planetesimals form
November 17, 2023
The most remote world ever seen up close is a mash-up of smaller pieces Read more
Supervolcano eruption on Pluto hints at hidden ocean beneath the surface
October 30, 2023
That ice lava had to come from somewhere Read more
Potential discovery of a dozen objects beyond Pluto
October 5, 2023
This could reveal a new section of the solar system we never knew about Read more
A new Earth-like planet in the distant Kuiper Belt?
September 13, 2023
Odd behaviors in the motions of icy bodies beyond 50 AU might be explained by an Earth-size planet Read more
Astronomers find a massive crater on a tiny world beyond Pluto
August 31, 2023
It spreads across 200 miles of the 500-mile-wide dwarf planet Read more
A ‘captured’ alien planet may be hiding at the edge of our Solar System
June 28, 2023
The cold and mysterious Oort cloud may be hiding a rogue planet Read more
None of Pluto's five moons actually orbit the dwarf planet
June 16, 2023
They all orbit a point outside of Pluto, and Charon is to blame Read more
Second ‘impossible’ ring found around distant dwarf planet
April 27, 2023
A potential explanation for it’s distant rings is the presence of a moon, Weywot Read more
New Horizons Pluto probe notches 3 new discoveries in outer solar system
March 16, 2023
New findings keep on coming from the mission's July 2015 Pluto flyby Read more
If Planet 9 has moons, would that help us find it?
February 20, 2023
Any moons orbiting the theoretical planet could provide indirect clues to its location Read more
Will Pluto and Neptune ever collide?
February 16, 2023
It may appear that their orbits intersect, but they're never in the same place at the same time Read more
Dwarf planet Quaoar hosts a ring that shouldn’t be there
February 15, 2023
The dwarf planet’s strange and “clumpy” ring should be a moon instead Read more
Cracks on Pluto's moon Charon may be evidence of a frozen subsurface ocean
February 12, 2023
When Charon's ocean froze it could have formed deep, elongated depressions Read more
Freezing ocean might not be responsible for cryovolcanic flows on Pluto’s moon, Charon
January 31, 2023
But if an interior ocean isn’t responsible for the flows, what could be? Read more
Will Pluto finally answer, ‘Are we alone?’
January 11, 2023
Smooth surface features like Sputnik Planitia indicate recent, and potentially active, geologic activity Read more
Demon goddess moon takes control of a planet
January 10, 2023
Dwarf planet Eris’ rotation is constrained by its large moon Dysnomia, named after the Greek goddess of lawlessness Read more
On Pluto you could throw a baseball over the Great Pyramid of Giza
December 27, 2022
Watch a ball throw on each planet in our solar system, plus Pluto and the moon Read more
Pluto is just one of millions of objects in the Kuiper belt
December 26, 2022
NASA estimates that there are 1 trillion comets in the Kuiper belt Read more
The Oort Cloud could have more rock than previously believed
December 14, 2022
This discovery supports an entirely different model of the formation of the Solar System Read more
Was interstellar object `Oumuamua a chunk of exo-Pluto?
November 15, 2022
The interstellar pancake might have been a chip off a Pluto-like object in another star system Read more
How JWST will reveal our Solar System beyond Neptune
October 11, 2022
NASA’s JWST may soon demystify the realm of Pluto and many other icy worlds Read more
Ancient ice volcanoes may have stained Pluto’s moon blood red
September 6, 2022
The region is named Mordor Macula, but scientists aren’t sure exactly how it got its gory hue Read more
The discovery of the Kuiper Belt revamped our view of the solar system
August 23, 2022
Thirty years ago, astronomers learned that Pluto had neighbors Read more
NASA posts pic of rainbow-colored Pluto just in time for Pride Month
July 21, 2022
Pluto gets splashed in a dash of colors to highlight its varied geography Read more
Pluto's moon has a mysterious red north pole, and we may finally know why
June 22, 2022
Early assumptions weren't too far from the mark, with a slight twist Read more
Fascinating Facts About Pluto
- If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, Earth would be the size of a nickel and dwarf planet Pluto would be about the size of the head of a pin.
- Sunlight on Pluto has the same intensity as moonlight on Earth.
- Pluto and its largest moon Charon form a binary system and orbit around a center of mass that is outside Pluto; it is the only binary system we have directly observed.
- Pluto’s name was proposed by an eleven-year-old girl named Venetia Burney from Oxford, England in 1930.
- The discovery of Eris in the Kuiper Belt led to Pluto’s demotion from planet to dwarf planet; similarly, Ceres in the asteroid belt was reclassified as a dwarf planet.
- The Kuiper Belt is where short-period comets (which take less than 200 years to orbit the Sun) originate.
- Some dwarf planets, such as Pluto, have thin atmospheres that collapse when they are farthest from the Sun in their orbits.
- Several dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt have moons; Pluto has five moons.
Missions
New Horizons (2006)
Mission to study Pluto, its moons and other Kuiper Belt objects