Live coverage: New Horizons returns first close-up image

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft spied extensional faults on Pluto, a sign that the dwarf planet has undergone a global expansion possibly due to the slow freezing of a sub-surface ocean. A new analysis by Brown University scientists bolsters that idea, and suggests that ocean is likely still there today.

NASA is tweaking operating procedures to prolong the life of its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, reducing the demand on its batteries and switching to star trackers instead of aging gyroscopes to determine the spacecraft’s orientation.

New Horizons science team members give personal accounts of their work during the Voyager Neptune encounter and their new assignments on the Pluto mission.