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
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Fall color sweeps across the West
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Thomas Edison s bright idea
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Travel Sunday: Sintra, Portugal
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An unlikely friendship in the wild
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China s colorful terraced pools
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The story of a rediscovered redwood
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Southern right whales sail home to South Africa
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Tough turf
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San Francisco’s City Hall illuminated by the iconic colors of Pride
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Glacial spires in the fog
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What are we looking at?
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Watson Lake in Granite Dells, Arizona
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Join us in celebrating World Water Day
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Monarch butterflies migrate south
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Across the great plains of Africa
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Where the bearded reedling sings
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Celebrating Madagascar on its Independence Day
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Presidents Day in America’s front yard
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Happy Father s Day
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Happy Hobbit Day