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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International Surfing Day
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Winterpret on ice
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White Sands National Park turns 90
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Nakupenda Beach Nature Reserve, Zanzibar, Tanzania
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International Haiku Poetry Day
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Of moles and liquid nitrogen
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Ponta da Piedade rock formations in Portugal
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Whales in winter
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Happy Easter!
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Winter Olympics in Beijing
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Dolomites
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National Park Week: Canyonlands National Park, Utah
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Avatar Mountains, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China
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National Park Service Founders Day
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Henningsvær Stadion, Norway
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Old Town Quito
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International Day of the Tropics
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A fortress in the sky
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Golden larches and Prusik Peak, the Enchantments, Washington
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At ease, it’s Armed Forces Day
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It s harvest time on World Food Day
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Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
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The most wonderful day of the year. Period.
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World Frog Day
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It s tree-climbing season
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Penguin Awareness Day
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Goliath heron in Kruger National Park, South Africa
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Poinsettia Day
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Happy holidays!
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Short-eared owl