Ultima Thule – Astronomy Now

Ultima Thule answers – and raises – questions about early solar system

19 March 2019 Astronomy Now

Data from the New Horizons flyby of the Kuiper Belt body Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day sheds new light on processes at work during the solar system’s birth.

New Horizons returns best view yet of Ultima Thule

23 February 2019 Astronomy Now

NASA’s New Horizons probe has sent back its best view yet of Ultima Thule, taken just 6.5 minutes before closest approach on New Year’s Day.

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.’

New Horizons sends back best picture yet of Ultima Thule

25 January 2019 Astronomy Now

NASA’s New Horizons probe has beamed back the highest resolution view yet of Ultima Thule, the twin-lobe Kuiper Belt body it flew by on 1 January.

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.

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.

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.

New Horizons’ path to Ultima Thule clear of hazards

19 December 2018 Astronomy Now

After a careful analysis of the path ahead, no rings or moons have been found that could threaten the New Horizons probe on its approach to Ultima Thule.

As New Horizons closes in on Ultima Thule, scientists propose a Pluto orbiter

25 October 2018 Astronomy Now

Three years outbound from Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is homing in on a Kuiper Belt object dubbed Ultima Thule for a dramatic New Year’s Day flyby, the first by any space probe in the extreme outer solar system.

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.