Back in the 1980’s, a now-defunct magazine called Science Digest held a contest to name Planet X — the still-undiscovered world that astronomers believed might lie out beyond Pluto. One of the best ...

We have to name stuff. If we didn't, we wouldn't know what we're talking about. When Pluto and its moons were essentially pinpoints, we got along with the bare bones. Not anymore. Every new solar ...

On July 14, NASA’s New Horizons (http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons) spacecraft will fly past Pluto, offering the first close-up look at that small, distant world and ...

The student-built science instrument on NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto has been renamed to honor one of astronomy’s most famous students – the “little girl” who named the ninth planet more than ...