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New Horizons Nears its Target

In less than 10 hours, the New Horizons spacecraft is going to whiz past Ultima Thule (the nickname for 2014 MU69), its latest target. The first of the “best” images of this tiny world arrived earlier today, and it looks like an elongated blob. That’s not a bad thing. It tells us roughly about this world’s shape, but the few pixels we have are a testament to how small Ultima is.

At a pressd conference on Dec. 31, John Spencer from the New Horizons team revealed the latest good image of Ultima Thule, still a few pixels wid

So, there’s still a lot scientists don’t know about Ultima, although they do know it’s probably red (due to substances called tholins), and that it is the smallest and most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft. By this time tomorrow, we’ll know a lot more, after New Horizons blows past and gets us a few more pixels’ worth of image detail.

As they like to say elsewhere, stay tuned! The best is yet to come.

Flyby Is in Full Swing

Want to follow the New Horizons mission at Ultima Thule, the most distant world ever visited by a spacecraft? Here are some places to check out the hot flyby action!

First, mission HQ is at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. The good folks there are putting out info via their YouTube Channel. So, keep an eye on that.

Here’s a sample of one of the video series they’ve put together.

Second, consider checking out the news center for the mission. Keep in mind that the servers will be pretty busy the next few days, so be patient. You can access that info here and click on the Where to Watch link.

Also, it now turns out that NASA TV will be showing a live feed of mission activities. For a while there, it seemed like NASA TV wouldn’t be working. That’s because the agency is on shutdown due to some irrational political tantrum over an unneeded wall. But, something changed in the past 24 hours. Now the agency is being allowed to share the New Horizons science with the taxpaying public. So, check that out as you can.

If you just want quick updates throughout the next few days, follow the mission at these social media links:

As well, many of us who will be on site will be tweeting, live-blogging, whatever it takes to get the word out about this amazing mission.

Stay tuned and see you at Ultima Thule!

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