News Archive / Tagged: Kuiper Belt

• New Horizons spacecraft is now 50 AU from the Sun

  Laurel KornfeldApril 22nd, 2021

  NASA's New Horizons spacecraft achieved a major milestone on Saturday, April 17, when it reached a distance of 50 AU from the Sun.

• Arrokoth’s flattened shape could shed light on planetesimal formation process

  Laurel KornfeldNovember 15th, 2020

  The flattened shape of the two lobes that make up Arrokoth, the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) visited by the New Horizons spacecraft in January 2019, may hold clues to the formation process of planetesimals and even planets.

• Pluto may have deep, ancient underground ocean

  Laurel KornfeldApril 14th, 2020

  Two new studies of data collected by the New Horizons spacecraft during its 2015 Pluto flyby suggest the dwarf planet has a deep subsurface ocean that may have been present all 4.5 billion years of Pluto’s existence.

• Scientific paper speculates about formation of Ultima Thule

  Laurel KornfeldMay 20th, 2019

  The first peer-reviewed academic paper about Ultima Thule based on New Horizons' flyby of the Kuiper Belt Object was published in the journal Science.

• Hubble Kuiper Belt survey to focus on binary systems

  Laurel KornfeldApril 8th, 2019

  The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is set to use the Hubble Space Telescope to conduct the largest ever survey of the Kuiper Belt.

• Scientists speculate about the origins of Ultima Thule’s surface features

  Laurel KornfeldMarch 20th, 2019

  The first primordial contact binary object ever studied up close, Ultima Thule continues to puzzle scientists with its strange shape.

• New Horizons data indicates small Kuiper Belt Objects are rare

  Laurel KornfeldMarch 3rd, 2019

  The relatively small number of craters NASA's New Horizons spacecraft found on Pluto's moon Charon indicates very small objects are rare in the Kuiper Belt.

• Papers present evidence for super Earth in the outer solar system

  Laurel KornfeldMarch 1st, 2019

  Two new academic papers present new evidence that a large, as yet undiscovered planet is lurking in the outer solar system.

• Animation shows Ultima Thule rotating as New Horizons approached

  Laurel KornfeldJanuary 17th, 2019

  Using images of Ultima Thule by the the New Horizons spacecraft, mission scientists have created an animation depicting the Kuiper Belt Object's rotation during the last hours before the probe's approach.

• New Horizons team releases first stereo image of Ultima Thule

  Laurel KornfeldJanuary 4th, 2019

  NASA's New Horizons team released the first stereo image of Ultima Thule, enabling viewers wearing 3D glasses to see its shape.

• First flyby images reveal Ultima Thule is a contact binary

  Laurel KornfeldJanuary 3rd, 2019

  New Horizons' first close flyby images of Ultima Thule show the Kuiper Belt object to be a contact binary composed of two lobes joined together.

• A single mission could orbit Pluto and explore the Kuiper Belt

  Laurel KornfeldOctober 30th, 2018

  While the New Horizons' mission is still exploring the Kuiper Belt a new mission could accomplish what the spacecraft has - and much more.

• New Horizons team previews Ultima Thule flyby

  Laurel KornfeldOctober 27th, 2018

  With the Ultima Thule flyby just 10 weeks away, the New Horizons team detailed plans for the spacecraft's trajectory and science gathering mission.

• New Horizons Science Chat discusses Ultima Thule flyby

  Laurel KornfeldSeptember 21st, 2018

  NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is now closer to its second target, Ultima Thule, than the Earth is to the Sun, and with the flyby just over 100 days away, mission scientists are actively preparing for the encounter.

• New Horizons exits hibernation to prepare for KBO flyby

  Laurel KornfeldJune 9th, 2018

  NASA's New Horizons probe has been awakened from nearly six months in hibernation to enable the mission team to start preparations for its flyby of Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Ultima Thule (also known as 2014 MU69) in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2019.