9 October 2025
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Kuiper Belt

News

Ultima Thule even stranger than previously thought

11 February 2019 Astronomy Now

New images of Ultima Thule show the snowman-shaped Kuiper belt body actually resembles a pancake attached to a ‘dented walnut.’

News

Live coverage: New Horizons returns first close-up image

30 December 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made a historic New Year’s encounter with an object nicknamed Ultima Thule in the Kuiper Belt a billion miles beyond Pluto. The probe passed around 3,500 kilometres from the mysterious object at 0533 GMT on New Year’s Day, making it the most distant Solar System body ever explored up close.

News

New Horizons closing in for historic flyby of Ultima Thule

29 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Covering 1.2 million kilometres per day, NASA’s New Horizons probe is on course for a high-speed New Year’s Day flyby of the Kuiper Belt body known as Ultima Thule.

News

Ultima Thule poses an initial surprise for New Horizons team

23 December 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s New Horizons probe, racing toward a 1 January flyby of the Kuiper Belt body known as Ultima Thule, has given scientists their first major surprise: the oblong, or binary body shows no signs of a discernible light curve suggesting rotation.

News

Astronomers find most distant Solar System body to date

19 December 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have found the most distant body yet discovered in Earth’s solar system, a dwarf planet 120 times farther from the Sun than Earth.

News

New Horizons catches sight of Kuiper Belt target ‘Ultima Thule’

29 August 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has finally caught sight of its post-Pluto target, a Kuiper Belt body nicknamed Ultima Thule. If all goes well, New Horizons will make a close flyby of the distant body on 1 January.

News

New Horizons wakes up for New Year’s Day flyby

5 June 2018 Astronomy Now

NASA’s New Horizons probe, three years outbound from Pluto, has woken from electronic hibernation, healthy and on course for a New Year’s Day flyby of an even more remote Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule.

News

‘Planet Nine’ may not be needed to explain strange orbits

5 June 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers are searching for a presumed “Planet Nine” in the extreme outer solar system whose gravity could explain unusual orbits of several remote bodies. New research suggests Planet Nine may not be necessary.

News

‘Exiled’ carbon-rich asteroid found in distant Kuiper Belt

12 May 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have discovered the first carbon-rich asteroid in the distant Kuiper Belt. The asteroid likely originated in the inner Solar System and was ejected by gravitational encounters with the Sun’s gas giants.

News

New Horizons spacecraft’s next distant destination gets a nickname

17 March 2018 Stephen Clark

The frozen faraway miniature world targeted for a high-speed flyby by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on 1 January 2019, now has a nickname: Ultima Thule.

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News Headlines

  • Nova outburst in Centaurus
    24 September 2025
  • Astronomy Now relaunches digital platform
    12 September 2025
  • Potentially habitable planet TRAPPIST-1e displays tentative evidence for an atmosphere
    8 September 2025
  • Ten-Year Lease Extension Confirmed at Herstmonceux Observatory
    18 August 2025
  • Graphic showing the close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus with other stars and contellations marked on a dark sky, above a horizon with trees in silhouette.
    Venus and Jupiter’s bright morning conjunction
    10 August 2025
  • Home
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