epic

Leaving Pluto in the dust: New Horizons probe gearing up for epic crossing of ‘termination shock’

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up-close spacecraft photo of a brownish-red two-lobed deep-space object that looks a lot like a snowman

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft conducted the first and only flyby of the Pluto system, culminating at the closest approach of that distant world in July 2015. Sailing onward, the probe carried out a Jan. 1, 2019 flyby of Arrokoth, a Kuiper Belt Object, or KBO, located in a region of space beyond Neptune called the … Read more

The Moon’s epic ‘grand canyons’ were gouged out in 10 minutes

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The vast valleys of Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck demonstrate the incredible forces that shaped the face of the Moon.  Vallis Schrödinger (at left) and Vallis Planck (at right) are enormous canyons blasted out by streams of debris from the impact that formed Schrödinger Basin (lower right). Credit: NASA/SVS/Ernie T. Wright Each year, millions of … Read more