The science team of NASA’s New Horizons mission has unveiled potentially significant discoveries about a Kuiper Belt object known as Ultima Thule.
This image taken by New Horizons’ Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) is the most detailed of Ultima Thule returned so far by the spacecraft. It was taken at 12:01 a.m. EST (5:01 a.m. GMT) on January 1, 2019, just 30 minutes before closest approach from a range of 18,000 miles (28,000 km). Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.
“The first exploration of a small Kuiper Belt object and the most distant exploration of any world in history is now history, but almost all of the data analysis lies in the future,” said New Horizons principal investigator Dr. Alan Stern, from Southwest Research Institute.
Among the incredible findings made by the New Horizons science team are:
(i) the color of Ultima Thule matches the color of similar Kuiper Belt objects;
(ii) the two lobes of the Kuiper Belt object are nearly identical in color; this matches what we know about binary systems which haven’t come into contact with each other, but rather orbit around a shared point of gravity;
(iii) Ultima Thule has no rings or satellites larger than one mile in diameter;
(iv) the object has no detectable atmosphere.
As Ultima Thule is seen to rotate, hints of the topography can be perceived. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.
Data transmission from New Horizons will pause for about a week while the spacecraft passes behind the Sun as seen from here on Earth.
Data transmission resumes January 10, 2019, starting a 20-month download of the spacecraft’s remaining scientific treasures.
“Those of us on the science team can’t wait to begin to start digging into that treasure trove,” Dr. Stern said.
