When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. This image of Pluto was made after the New Horizons spacecraft flew past the dwarf planet on July ...

Earth has a newly-discovered neighbor in the solar system. But the heavenly body – possibly a dwarf planet à la Pluto – isn't a frequent visitor. Located beyond Neptune, its extreme orbit ...

Billions of years ago, in the frozen edges of the solar system, a violent impact shaped one of space’s oddest pairs. Instead of a typical planet-moon setup, Pluto and Charon became a binary system.

Pluto may have been demoted to non-planet status, but it still commands a court of five moons, as is fitting for the king of darkness; after all, Pluto is the Roman equivalent of the Greek God Hades.

Pluto and Charon don’t behave like a typical planet and moon system. Instead of Charon orbiting inside Pluto’s body, both objects orbit a point in space between them called the barycenter. That’s why ...

A team of astronomers believe they may have discovered a new dwarf planet—just like Pluto—on the edge of our solar system. The object—which orbits out beyond Neptune—has been named "2017 OF201" by the ...

A composite image showing the five dwarf planets recognized by the International Astronomical Union, plus the newly discovered trans-Neptunian object 2017 OF201. The TNO is potentially large enough to ...

The five dwarf planets recognized by the International Astronomical Union are Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake—and these are pictured with 2017 OF201 in a telescope image. Dwarf planets: NASA / ...