Nasa researchers gave the icy Broken 2014 MU69 the name of Ultima Thule. Now the space probe New Horizons, which had explored in 2015, the Pluto visits the distant world. Ultima Thule is the most distant celestial object that has ever been achieved by an alien probe. The historic visit is expected for the new year's night.
Ultima Thule, a frozen relic from the early days of the solar system, is about as large as the US capital, Washington. The object is in the Kuiper belt, about 6.4 billion kilometers away from earth, and about a billion kilometres beyond the orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto.
In less than 48 hours, New Horizons will make history! The team at @JHUAPL is preparing for the #NewYears flyby of #Ultima Thule, the farthest object to be explored by a spacecraft ever - 4 trillion miles from the Sun and ~1 billion miles from Pluto. pic.twitter.com/3EiB2bmOKy
— Nasa New Horizons (@NASA's newhorizons) December 30, 2018
The Nasa probe, controls the 1. January at 6.33 PM (Swiss time) at Ultima Thule in the past. Until then, the composition and the Form of the celestial body to remain a mystery.
Ultima Thule "is a time capsule that will lead us to four and a half billion years back to the birth of the solar system," said Alan Stern, project leader at the Southwest Research Institute.
One or more objects?
The unmanned probe was on 26. December in the "security mode" occurred and was "in very good condition," added the star. On Board a camera zooms currently on Ultima Thule, so that the scientists can understand the Form and configuration better. Thus, it is important to find out whether it is one or multiple objects.
"We have never before seen such an object," said Kelsi Singer, Co-Chairman of the New Horizons team at the Southwest Research Institute. About a day earlier, the true Form of the celestial object will reveal itself gradually.
to contact with the probe in contact, the researchers have a lot of patience. Six hours and eight minutes for a Signal to earth is required. The message, whether New Horizons has survived the fly-in 3500 miles away, is on 1. January is expected to 16 PM.
#Ultima Thule is an icy rock, located ~1 billion miles past Pluto in the Kuiper Belt. On #NewYearsEve, @NASA's newhorizons want to. fly within 2,220 miles of this object, providing the first close-up look at such a pristine building block of the solar system: https://t.co/mt909rjbmm pic.twitter.com/oiqetkozah
— Nasa (@Nasa) December 29, 2018
scientists from The U.S. space Agency anxiously waiting for the first pictures Since the space probe is on its way out of the solar system, and you won't be swinging as with Pluto in an Orbit. "We have only one Chance to get there," said Alice Bowman, the New Horizons Team.
in 2006, launched a probe sent 2015 stunning images of Pluto, showing, among other things, a heart-shaped Region on the dwarf planet. In the meantime, New Horizons travels with a 51'500 kilometers per hour through the universe and back, about 1.6 million kilometers per day.
(oli/ats)
Created: 30.12.2018, 22:14 PM