News Archive / Tagged: Ultima Thule
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New Horizons’ second target is formally named Arrokoth
Laurel KornfeldNovember 15th, 2019The double-lobed Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) located one billion miles beyond Pluto and visited by the New Horizons spacecraft on January 1, 2019, has been officially named Arrokoth, which means sky in the Native American Powhatan/Algonquian language.
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Scientific paper speculates about formation of Ultima Thule
Laurel KornfeldMay 20th, 2019The first peer-reviewed academic paper about Ultima Thule based on New Horizons' flyby of the Kuiper Belt Object was published in the journal Science.
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Scientists speculate about the origins of Ultima Thule’s surface features
Laurel KornfeldMarch 20th, 2019The first primordial contact binary object ever studied up close, Ultima Thule continues to puzzle scientists with its strange shape.
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New 3D images show detailed view of Ultima Thule
Laurel KornfeldMarch 9th, 2019Scientists on NASA's New Horizons team have created a 3D image of Ultima Thule by combining pictures of the object taken from a variety of angles.
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New Horizons data indicates small Kuiper Belt Objects are rare
Laurel KornfeldMarch 3rd, 2019The 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.
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New Horizons’ LORRI captures details on Ultima Thule’s surface
Laurel KornfeldFebruary 23rd, 2019A risky maneuver by New Horizons aimed at obtaining high resolution images of Ultima Thule's surface just before the vehicle's closest approach succeeded.
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New Horizons’ departure images shed new light on Ultima Thule’s shape
Laurel KornfeldFebruary 11th, 2019A new set of New Horizons flyby images taken on New Year's Day 2019 reveals Ultima Thule is shaped more like a flat object.
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Latest image reveals Ultima Thule’s surface features
Laurel KornfeldJanuary 27th, 2019The most detailed image of Ultima Thule returned by New Horizons reveals surface details, including pits on both the object's lobes and contrasting patterns of darkness and light in various regions.
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Animation shows Ultima Thule rotating as New Horizons approached
Laurel KornfeldJanuary 17th, 2019Using 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.
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New Horizons team releases first stereo image of Ultima Thule
Laurel KornfeldJanuary 4th, 2019NASA's New Horizons team released the first stereo image of Ultima Thule, enabling viewers wearing 3D glasses to see its shape.
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First flyby images reveal Ultima Thule is a contact binary
Laurel KornfeldJanuary 3rd, 2019New Horizons' first close flyby images of Ultima Thule show the Kuiper Belt object to be a contact binary composed of two lobes joined together.
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New Horizons signals successful flyby of Ultima Thule
Laurel KornfeldJanuary 1st, 2019The New Horizons team recieved signals confirming a tiny spacecraft raced by a small world to complete the farthest exploration of any Solar System object.
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New Horizons cleared for optimal approach to Ultima Thule
Laurel KornfeldDecember 25th, 2018New Horizons is clear to fly an optimal path for observation after hazard searches near Ultima Thule found no debris that could pose a danger to the probe.
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New Horizons course correction puts spacecraft on target to Ultima Thule
Laurel KornfeldDecember 10th, 2018NASA's New Horizons spacecraft conducted the most distant ever course-correction maneuver by any spacecraft on Sunday, Dec. 2, firing its thrusters for just 105 seconds to adjust its velocity by approximately 2.2 miles per hour.
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How two NASA missions will rewrite what we know about our solar system
Laurel KornfeldNovember 24th, 2018An asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter and a Kuiper Belt Object four billion miles away will both have their mysteries unveiled when NASA missions explore them in December and January.