Pluto News

December 24, 2025

Top Headlines

Subaru Telescope Reveals a Hidden Giant Planet

Dec. 22, 2025 Astronomers have uncovered a massive hidden planet and a rare “failed star” by combining ultra-precise space data with some of the sharpest ground-based images ever taken. Using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaiʻi, the OASIS survey tracked subtle ...

JWST Captures Stunning 3D View of a Planet’s Scorching Atmosphere

Nov. 2, 2025 A team of astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to create the first 3D atmospheric map of an exoplanet. The fiery WASP-18b, a massive “ultra-hot Jupiter,” revealed striking temperature contrasts, including regions so hot they destroy ...

The Sun’s Hidden Poles Could Finally Reveal Its Greatest Secrets

Oct. 14, 2025 High above the Sun’s blazing equator lie its mysterious poles, the birthplace of fast solar winds and the heart of its magnetic heartbeat. For decades, scientists have struggled to see these regions, hidden from Earth’s orbit. With the upcoming ...

The Moon’s South Pole Hides a 4-billion-year-old Secret

Oct. 12, 2025 A colossal northern asteroid impact billions of years ago likely shaped the Moon’s south polar region and explains its uneven terrain. Researchers found that the South Pole-Aitken Basin formed from a glancing northern strike, revealing deep ...

A Record-breaking Antenna Just Deployed in Space. Here’s What It Will See

Aug. 18, 2025 NASA and ISRO s NISAR satellite has just reached a major milestone: the successful deployment of its enormous 39-foot antenna reflector in orbit. Folded up like an umbrella during launch, the reflector is now fully extended and ready to support ...

The Surprising Way Rising CO2 Could Supercharge Space Storms

Aug. 17, 2025 Rising CO₂ levels will make the upper atmosphere colder and thinner, altering how geomagnetic storms impact satellites. Future storms could cause sharper density spikes despite lower overall density, increasing drag-related ...

Millions of New Solar System Objects to Be Found and 'Filmed in Technicolor' -- Studies Predict

June 3, 2025 Astronomers have revealed new research showing that millions of new solar system objects are likely to be detected by a brand-new facility, which is expected to come online later this ...

Webb Reveals the Surprising Origin of Ultra-hot Exoplanet WASP-121b

June 2, 2025 WASP-121b may have been born in a frozen zone and later migrated into its current inferno-like orbit. A surprise discovery of methane in the wrong place suggests intense vertical winds are reshaping how we understand planetary ...

Why Are Some Rocks on the Moon Highly Magnetic?

May 23, 2025 Scientists may have solved the mystery of why the moon shows ancient signs of magnetism although it has no magnetic field today. An impact, such as from a large asteroid, could have generated a cloud of ionized particles that briefly enveloped the ...

Unveiling the Secrets of Planet Formation in Environments of High UV Radiation

May 21, 2025 Even under intense ultraviolet radiation from giant stars, the raw ingredients for planets can endure. Using Webb s powerful infrared eyes, astronomers examined a young star in the Lobster Nebula and ...

Ultraviolet Data from NASA's Europa Clipper Mission

May 16, 2025 The Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft has successfully completed its initial commissioning following the October 14, 2024, launch. Scheduled to arrive in the Jovian system in 2030, the spacecraft will orbit ...

Astronomers Take a Second Look at Twin Star Systems

May 14, 2025 Apples-to-apples comparisons in the distant universe are hard to come by. Whether the subject is dwarf galaxies, supermassive black holes, or 'hot Jupiters,' astronomers can spend months or years searching for comparable objects and formations to ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:23am EST

What Scientists Found Inside Titan Was Not What Anyone Expected

Dec. 20, 2025 For years, scientists thought Saturn’s moon Titan hid a global ocean beneath its frozen surface. A new look at Cassini data now suggests something very different: a thick, slushy interior with ...

New Orbital Clue Reveals How Hot Jupiters Really Formed

Dec. 15, 2025 Hot Jupiters were once cosmic oddities, but unraveling how they moved so close to their stars has remained a stubborn mystery. Scientists have long debated whether these giants were violently flung ...

Webb Finds a Hidden Atmosphere on a Molten Super-Earth

Dec. 14, 2025 Webb’s latest observations reveal a hellish world cloaked in an unexpected atmosphere: TOI-561 b, an ultra-hot rocky planet racing around its star in under 11 hours. Despite being blasted by ...

A Nearby Earth-Size Planet Just Got Much More Mysterious

Dec. 12, 2025 TRAPPIST-1e, an Earth-sized world in the system’s habitable zone, is drawing scientific attention as researchers hunt for signs of an atmosphere—and potentially life-supporting conditions. Early ...

James Webb Catches a Giant Helium Cloud Pouring Off a Puffy Planet

Dec. 10, 2025 Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have captured dramatic helium streams pouring off the super-puff exoplanet WASP-107b, revealing a world with an enormously inflated, weakly bound ...

New Moonquake Discovery Could Change NASA’s Moon Plans

Dec. 7, 2025 Scientists have discovered that moonquakes, not meteoroids, are responsible for shifting terrain near the Apollo 17 landing site. Their analysis points to a still-active fault that has been ...

SPHERE’s Stunning Space Images Reveal Where New Planets Are Forming

Dec. 6, 2025 SPHERE’s detailed images of dusty rings around young stars offer a rare glimpse into the hidden machinery of planet formation. These bright arcs and faint clouds reveal where tiny planet-building ...

The Solar Mission That Survived Disaster and Found 5,000 Comets

Dec. 3, 2025 For thirty years, SOHO has watched the Sun from a stable perch in space, revealing the inner workings of our star and surviving crises that nearly ended the mission. Its long-term observations ...

Nearby Super-Earth Emerges as a Top Target in the Search for Life

Nov. 23, 2025 Researchers have pinpointed a super-Earth in the habitable zone of a nearby M-dwarf star only 18 light-years away. Sophisticated instruments detected the planet’s gentle tug on its star, hinting at ...

Supercomputers Decode the Strange Behavior of Enceladus’s Plumes

Nov. 18, 2025 Cutting-edge simulations show that Enceladus’ plumes are losing 20–40% less mass than earlier estimates suggested. The new models provide sharper insights into subsurface conditions that future ...

Astronomers Spot a Rare Planet-Stripping Eruption on a Nearby Star

Nov. 14, 2025 Scientists have finally confirmed a powerful coronal mass ejection from another star, using LOFAR radio data paired with XMM-Newton’s X-ray insights. The eruption blasted into space at ...

Astronomers Discover Dying Stars Eating Their Planets

Nov. 6, 2025 Astronomers have discovered that aging stars may be devouring their closest giant planets as they swell into red giants. Using NASA’s TESS telescope to study nearly half a million stars, scientists ...

Astronomers Stunned by Three Earth-Sized Planets Orbiting Two Suns

Nov. 12, 2025 Scientists have identified three Earth-sized planets orbiting two stars in the TOI-2267 system. Remarkably, planets transit around both stars — a first in astronomy. The system’s compact, cold ...

Nearby Super-Earth May Be Our Best Chance Yet to Find Alien Life

Nov. 13, 2025 A newly detected super-Earth just 20 light-years away is giving scientists one of the most promising chances yet to search for life beyond our solar system. The discovery of the exoplanet orbiting in ...

Saturn's Moon Titan Just Broke One of Chemistry’s Oldest Rules

Oct. 17, 2025 Scientists from NASA and Chalmers University have discovered that incompatible substances can mix on Titan’s icy surface, breaking the “like dissolves like” rule of chemistry. Under ultra-cold ...

These Giant Planets Shouldn’t Exist. But They Do

Oct. 15, 2025 Astronomers are investigating a strange class of exoplanets known as eccentric warm Jupiters — massive gas giants that orbit their stars in unexpected, elongated paths. Unlike their close-orbiting ...

Astronomers Shocked by Mysterious Gas Found in Deep Space

Nov. 9, 2025 Astronomers have discovered phosphine gas in the atmosphere of an ancient brown dwarf, Wolf 1130C, using the James Webb Space Telescope. The finding is puzzling because phosphine, a potential ...

Rogue Planet Spotted Devouring 6 Billion Tons Every Second

Oct. 3, 2025 Astronomers have uncovered a runaway feeding frenzy in a rogue planet drifting freely through space, devouring six billion tonnes of gas and dust every second. Located 620 light-years away in the ...

Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus Just Revealed Stunning New Clues to Life

Oct. 2, 2025 Fresh analysis of Cassini data has revealed new complex organic molecules inside ice grains spewing from Enceladus. These discoveries strengthen the case that the moon’s underground ocean hosts ...

October’s Sky Comes Alive With a Supermoon and Shooting Stars

Oct. 5, 2025 October’s night sky is set to dazzle, featuring a radiant supermoon, the fiery Draconid meteor shower, and the sparkling Orionids. As the full moon reaches its largest and brightest on October 6, ...

The Moon’s Far Side Is Hiding a Chilling Secret

Oct. 3, 2025 New lunar samples from the far side reveal it formed from cooler magma than the near side, confirming the Moon’s interior is not uniform. Researchers suggest fewer heat-producing elements on the ...

James Webb Spots a Cosmic Moon Factory 625 Light-Years Away

Oct. 29, 2025 NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first detailed look at a carbon-rich disk surrounding the exoplanet CT Cha b, located about 625 light-years from Earth. The observations reveal a ...

10 People Who Beat 8,000 Others to Become NASA Astronaut Candidates

Sep. 23, 2025 NASA has chosen 10 new astronaut candidates who will train for missions to the Moon and Mars. Their selection represents a powerful blend of talent and ambition, fueling humanity’s next great leaps ...

Alien Water Worlds Were Just a Mirage

Sep. 19, 2025 A new study challenges the dream of water-rich “Hycean” planets like K2-18b, suggesting that most sub-Neptunes lose their water deep into their interiors during formation. Instead of vast oceans, ...

White Dwarf Caught Devouring a Frozen Pluto-Like World

Sep. 17, 2025 Astronomers have detected the chemical fingerprint of a frozen, water-rich planetary fragment being devoured by a white dwarf star, offering the clearest evidence yet that icy, life-delivering ...

Strange ‘leopard Spots’ in a Mars Rock Could Be the Strongest Hint of Life Yet

Sep. 16, 2025 NASA’s Perseverance rover has delivered its most compelling clue yet in the search for life on Mars. A rock sample called “Sapphire Canyon,” taken from the Bright Angel formation in Jezero ...

NASA's Perseverance Rover Finds Clues to Ancient Mars Chemistry and Possible Life

Sep. 12, 2025 Mars’ Jezero Crater holds signs of ancient water and strange mineral reactions, some linked with organic compounds. With Perseverance’s samples and AI-refined mineral maps, scientists are closing ...

A Doomed Star System Could Soon Shine as Bright as the Moon

Sep. 11, 2025 Astronomers have uncovered the violent secret of V Sagittae, a white dwarf star consuming its companion in a spectacular feeding frenzy. This cosmic dance not only makes the system burn with unusual ...

NASA’s Celestial “Accident” Unlocks Secrets of Jupiter and Saturn

Sep. 10, 2025 Astronomers studying an oddball brown dwarf called “The Accident” have finally spotted silane, a long-predicted silicon molecule missing from Jupiter and Saturn’s skies. Its ancient, ...

Webb Spots First Hints of Atmosphere on a Potentially Habitable World

Oct. 1, 2025 Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope are unraveling the mysteries of TRAPPIST-1e, an Earth-sized exoplanet 40 light years away that could harbor liquid water. Early data suggests hints of ...