Jan. 21, 1979: Neptune Moves Outside Pluto's Wacky Orbit
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Most of the time, Pluto is the planet (or dwarf planet) farthest from the sun. But every 248 years its eccentric orbit carries it inside the orbit of Neptune and they switch positions for a while.
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The dwarf planet formerly known as Xena received a new name, while Pluto was given a number to reflect the loss of its status as a planet.
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Planet hunters have found two worlds roughly the mass of Neptune, each orbiting a star within 30 light-years of our solar system. The planets are likely gaseous or mixtures of ice and rock, but they might be barren rock worlds like Mercury.
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Five new moons have been discovered orbiting the giant planet Neptune.
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PARIS  -- A rock measuring less than 10 metres (33 feet) across zipped past the Earth at the closest distance ever detected, but it would not have posed any threat if it had struck our planet, astronomers said.      The "very small" asteroid missed the Earth on March 31 by the wafer-thin gap of 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles), according to an email circulated by the international network NEO News (NEO stands for Near-Earth Object)...
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A large planet-like object out in the realm of Pluto shows signs of either a relatively recent collision or perhaps volcanic activity, astronomers said today.
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The first global positioning system satellite is launched; 23 more will follow, and then we will always know where we are. Compiled by Tony Long.
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When New Horizons, NASA's Pluto-bound spacecraft, swings by Jupiter on Feb.
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Astronomers scouring nearby stars have found two planets that mirror Neptune in size, making them by far the smallest found outside the solar system.
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Advances in planet-hunting technology lead to the discovery of more planets -- plus seven brown dwarfs -- outside our solar system.
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By Bill Geroux, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.  Dec. 12--WALLOPS ISLAND -- The launch of a 69-foot orbital rocket from a  regional spaceport on the Eastern Shore was scrubbed yesterday because of a  software glitch in a satellite the rocket carries.
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Homer Simpson, meet your match in space: Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a lopsided "doughnut" of electrified plasma surrounding Saturn.
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Fifty years ago today, the 70-foot (21-meter) tall Juno 1 rocket, a modified Redstone missile, launched the Explorer I satellite, marking the first U.S. built payload to enter Earth orbit. Three of the booster's four stages fell into the ocean while the fourth, which was used to boost Explorer I's velocity, entered orbit behind the satellite.
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Astronomers have discovered a new class of planets outside the solar system that hug their parent stars so tightly they take less than a day to complete an orbit.
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Size doesn't matter. That was the message as friends and colleagues of the late Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto, gathered on the New Mexico State University campus to protest the International Astronomical Union's recent decision to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.
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Astronomers have discovered the three lightest planets known outside the solar system, moving researchers closer to the goal of finding extrasolar planets that resemble Earth.
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While striving to find ever smaller, more rocky worlds, planet hunters have moved from discovering not just Jupiter-class planets outside our solar system. Now astronomers have found two new Neptune-class planets on their road to pinpointing a new Earth-like system.