NASA has released the first image from the historic Ultima Thule flyby taken with New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera.
Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.
New Horizons flew past Ultima Thule at 12:33 a.m. EST (5:33 a.m. GMT) January 1, 2019, ushering in the era of exploration from Kuiper Belt, a collection of icy bodies left over from the Solar System’s formation 4.6 billion years ago.
Signals confirming the probe is healthy and had filled its digital recorders with science data on Ultima Thule reached the mission operations center at 10:29 a.m. EST (3:29 p.m. GMT).
“New Horizons performed as planned, conducting the farthest exploration of any world in history — 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) from the Sun,” said New Horizons principal investigator Dr. Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute.
“The data we have look fantastic and we’re already learning about Ultima Thule from up close. From here out the data will just get better and better!”
“New Horizons holds a dear place in our hearts as an intrepid and persistent little explorer, as well as a great photographer,” said Dr. Ralph Semmel, Director of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
“This flyby marks a first for all of us and it is a great credit to the bold team of scientists and engineers who brought us to this point.”
“Reaching Ultima Thule from 4 billion miles away is an incredible achievement. This is exploration at its finest,” said Dr. Adam Hamilton, President and CEO of Southwest Research Institute.
“Congratulations to NASA’s New Horizons team, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and the Southwest Research Institute for making history yet again,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
“In addition to being the first to explore Pluto, today New Horizons flew by the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft and became the first to directly explore an object that holds remnants from the birth of our Solar System. This is what leadership in space exploration is all about.”
