{"id":17420,"date":"2018-12-27T11:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=17420"},"modified":"2018-12-26T17:46:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-26T22:46:34","slug":"new-horizons-to-make-new-years-flyby-of-ultima-thule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=17420","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons to make New Years flyby of Ultima Thule"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Horizons<\/a> probe made its flyby of Pluto<\/a> in July of 2015 and then sped on into the Kuiper Belt<\/a>, a vast region of space inhabited by debris from the earliest era in the formation of the solar system. As a mission bonus, the trajectory of the spacecraft was subsequently nudged by its engine<\/a> to send the craft past the recently discovered Kuiper object labeled 2014 MU69. With the help of a public contest<\/a>, the object was given the more interesting name of Ultima Thule –<\/p>\n

Thule was a mythical, far-northern island in medieval literature and cartography. Ultima Thule means “beyond Thule”\u2013 beyond the borders of the known world\u2014symbolizing the exploration of the distant Kuiper Belt and Kuiper Belt objects that New Horizons is performing, something never before done.<\/em><\/p>\n

On New Years Day 2019 at 12:33 am EST, New Horizons will make its closest approach to Ultima Thule, which is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) in size. In fact, it will fly three times closer than its nearest distance from the surface of Pluto. Ultima Thule will be the farthest object ever targeted by a spacecraft from earth.<\/p>\n

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The Kuiper Belt lies in the so-called “third zone” of our solar system, beyond the terrestrial planets (inner zone) and gas giants (middle zone). This vast region contains billions of objects, including comets, dwarf planets like Pluto and “planetesimals” like Ultima Thule. The objects in this region are believed to be frozen in time \u2014 relics left over from the formation of the solar system. <\/em>Credits: NASA\/JHUAPL\/SwRI<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is an update: All About Ultima: New Horizons Flyby Target is Unlike Anything Explored in Space – New Horizons – Dec.26.2018<\/a><\/p>\n

Marc Buie, New Horizons co-investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and members of the New Horizons science team discovered Ultima using the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014. The object is so far and faint in all telescopes, little is known about the world beyond its location and orbit. In 2016, researchers determined it had a red color. In 2017, a NASA campaign using ground-based telescopes traced out its size \u2014 just about 20 miles (30 kilometers) across \u2014 and irregular shape when it passed in front of a star, an event called a “stellar occultation.”<\/em><\/p>\n

From its brightness and size, New Horizons team members have calculated Ultima’s reflectivity, which is only about 10 percent, or about as dark as garden dirt. Beyond that, nothing else is known about it \u2014 basic facts like its rotational period and whether or not it has moons are unknown.<\/em><\/p>\n

“All that is about to dramatically change on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, also of SwRI. “New Horizons will map Ultima, map its surface composition, determine how many moons it has and find out if it has rings or even an atmosphere. It will make other studies, too, such as measuring Ultima’s temperature and perhaps even its mass. In the space of one 72-hour period, Ultima will be transformed from a pinpoint of light \u2014 a dot in the distance \u2014 to a fully explored world. It should be breathtaking!”<\/em><\/p>\n

A sequence of images from the New Horizons camera shows the object growing larger in the field of view:<\/p>\n

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The #NewHorizons<\/a> spacecraft is on final approach to #UltimaThule<\/a>! Lots happening to get ready for our historic #NYE19<\/a> flyby in the #KuiperBelt<\/a>. Get the latest from Mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern in this new blog post –> https:\/\/t.co\/yDyVDmo4bf<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/cGjYCbaR6Q<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) December 20, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n