Word: solarity
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...either has to be downgraded from its original status as a full-fledged planet, or at least a handful of other big Kuiper Belt objects have to be added to the list. But in any case, these lumps of ice haven't melted since the origin of the Solar System some 4.4 billion years ago, and so, unlike the closer planets, they are a geochemical snapshot of the ancient past, which can tell astronomers an enormous amount about where we came from...
...realistic conservation efforts. Groups like the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy say we could cut natural-gas prices 20% in the next five years if the U.S. would, for instance, mandate efficiency targets for power plants and offer more financial incentives for renewable fuels like wind and solar. Even some industrial bosses are calling for more conservation to keep the economy humming. Says Liveris: "It's a shame the U.S. hasn't put in place these policies." As Americans are discovering, it's also costly...
When NASA first considered a mission to Pluto more than 15 years ago, the idea was to visit the last and most distant of the nine planets, an oddball whose icy composition, tilted orbit and tiny size made it unlike anything else in the solar system. But when the New Horizons probe finally takes off from Cape Canaveral?as early as next week, if all goes well?it will be heading for something else entirely. "This little misfit is now central to our understanding of the origin of our solar system," says Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute...
...diskshape swarm known as the Kuiper Belt that orbits the sun in the dark, frigid realm beyond Neptune. Since the discovery last summer of an object called 2003 UB313, Pluto is not even the biggest. And because those little worlds have been in deep freeze since the solar system was formed more than 4 billion years ago, they represent a frozen record of what conditions were like back then...
...Thruster ? Star tracking cameras ? PEPSSI - Detects molecules escaping from Pluto's atmosphere ? SWAP - Looks for magnetic fields and measures how fast the atmosphere is escaping ? RTG - Powers the craft with a tiny amount of plutonium. Because the probe will travel so far from the sun, solar power was not an option ? LORRI - A high-resolution telescope and camera capable of detecting features about the size of a football field ? REX - Uses radio waves to analyze the atmosphere and determine night-side temperature ? ALICE - Analyzes ultraviolet light to determine atmospheric composition ? RALPH - Makes...