On Jan. 1, NASA’s New Horizons will perform a high-risk, high-reward flyby of an ancient world on the outskirts of the solar system.
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is just over 100 days away from a high-risk, high-reward flyby of an ancient world on the outskirts of the solar system.
On New Year’s Day 2019, the spacecraft will come within 3,500 kilometers of 2014 MU69, an estimated 37-kilometer-wide object the mission team has nicknamed Ultima Thule. The encounter will take place 6.6 billion kilometers from Earth, where it takes more than 6 hours for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to reach NASA’s Deep Space Network.
There will only be one chance for New Horizons to perfectly aim its cameras and science instruments at Ultima Thule as it zips past at 14 kilometers per second, and there may be unforeseen hazards in the spacecraft’s path. Nevertheless, Jim Green, the director of NASA’s planetary science division, is looking forward to the drama.