Pluto was first spotted on this day in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, a 23-year-old astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Because it"s so far away—about 40 times as far from the sun as Earth is—scientists knew relatively little about Pluto until the New Horizons spacecraft reached it in 2015. In a flyby study, the craft spent more than five months gathering detailed information about Pluto and its moons. What did they find out? There’s a heart-shaped glacier, blue skies, spinning moons, mountains as high as the Rockies, and it snows—but the snow is red.
Too awesome to be a planet
Today in History
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The forecast calls for blooms
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Veterans Day
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Martinique
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Happy Welsh New Year!
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World Reef Awareness Day
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The snows of Fuji
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A good time in the Badlands
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Astronomy Day
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Pollinators: not to be sneezed at
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Winter at Valley Forge
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The island fox’s incredible comeback
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The Twin Cities celebrate Pride
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That s quite a schnoz, baby tapir
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World Architecture Day
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International Archaeology Day
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Bearded reedlings in Flevoland
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Have you turned off your electronic device?
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Cherry blossoms spring to life
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The Girl Scouts celebrate 110 years
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Devetashka Cave, Devetaki, Bulgaria
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Weaverbird nests at Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve
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Let s get lost
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Square Tower House in Mesa Verde National Park
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Remembering Jimmy Carter
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Vinh Hy Bay, Vietnam
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A long, erratic commute
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Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park
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Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the institution s 175th anniversary
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National Park Service Founders Day
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The Cordillera de la Sal in the Cordillera Domeyko Range of Chile