News Archive / Tagged: KBO 2014 MU69

• New Horizons performs course correction on path toward second target

  Laurel KornfeldFebruary 3rd, 2017

  After spending six days in a special mode to capture distant photographs of six Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), the New Horizons probe underwent a minor course correction engine burn sending it toward its second flyby target, KBO 2014 MU69.

• New Horizons shows possible clouds on Pluto, target KBO reddish

  Laurel KornfeldOctober 20th, 2016

  Data presented by New Horizons mission scientists at the current American Astronomical Society (AAS) Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) Conference suggest possible clouds in Pluto's hazy atmosphere, and also show the spacecraft's second target, Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, to have the same reddish color as Pluto.

• Pluto’s mountains have methane snowcaps, New Horizons images Quaoar

  Laurel KornfeldSeptember 6th, 2016

  Snowcaps similar to those on Earth are visible in the southernmost region at the left of Pluto's encounter hemisphere, according to the latest images sent back by New Horizons. However, unlike the water-ice caps of Earth, these are composed of methane.

• New Horizons extended mission approved; Sputnik Planum nitrogen ice shows intricate patterns

  Laurel KornfeldJuly 6th, 2016

  NASA has officially given the green light to the mission extension of their New Horizons spacecraft – a visit to the small Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) known as 2014 MU₆₉, located close to a billion miles beyond Pluto.

• Pluto’s atmosphere studied during stellar occultation; New Horizons images distant KBO

  Laurel KornfeldMay 19th, 2016

  NASA's New Horizons mission continues to send back valuable information about the Pluto system even as the spacecraft begins taking its first images of a more distant Kuiper Belt Object (KBO).

• New Horizons mission extension submitted to NASA; images of Pluto’s hazes show new detail

  Laurel KornfeldApril 21st, 2016

  As NASA's New Horizons probe reached the halfway mark in sending back data from July's Pluto flyby, members of the mission team submitted an extended mission proposal to NASA outlining a close flyby of a small Kuiper Belt Object on New Year's Day 2019.

• New Horizons sends back Kerberos images, adjusts course toward next target

  Laurel KornfeldOctober 24th, 2015

  NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has returned images of Pluto's tiniest moon, Kerberos. In so doing, the far-ranging probe has shown it to be smaller than scientists expected with a highly reflective surface. The spacecraft was also commanded to begin shifting its trajectory to encounter a new Kuiper Belt Object (KBO).

• KBO selected for New Horizons’ second target

  Laurel KornfeldAugust 31st, 2015

  Only a month and a half after New Horizons' historic Pluto system flyby, the mission team has selected a potential target for the spacecraft's second visit – the tiny Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, also known as "PT 1" (Potential Target 1). Orbiting almost a billion miles beyond Pluto, 2014 MU69 is estimated to have a diameter slightly under 30 miles (45 km).