26 September 2023
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Latest News
  • [ 11 September 2023 ] The Great Square of Pegasus: heralding autumn News
  • [ 18 August 2023 ] New comet predicted to brighten rapidly as it sprints Sunwards News
  • [ 2 August 2023 ] NASA picks up faint carrier signal from Voyager 2 News
  • [ 31 July 2023 ] Razor-sharp test images show Euclid’s instruments performing as expected News
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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

  • The Great Square of Pegasus: heralding autumn
    11 September 2023
  • New comet predicted to brighten rapidly as it sprints Sunwards
    18 August 2023
  • NASA picks up faint carrier signal from Voyager 2
    2 August 2023
  • Razor-sharp test images show Euclid’s instruments performing as expected
    31 July 2023
  • NASA loses touch with Voyager 2; waits for craft to ‘phone home’
    31 July 2023
  • Home
  • The Magazine
    • About
    • Current Issue
    • Subscribe
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      • September last issue
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  • AstroFest 2023
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    • DSLR Calc
  • Reviews
    • Equipment
    • Book Reviews
  • Spaceflight Now
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    • Ask Astronomy Now
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