New Year’s “Resolution” – Up Close Focus on Ultima Thule

New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of Southwest Analysis Institute (SwRI), Boulder, CO., left, with print of a U.S. stamp with instructed replace because the New Horizons spacecraft explored Pluto in July 2015.
Credit score: NASA/Invoice Ingalls

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encounter with “Ultima Thule” – a Kuiper Belt object that orbits one billion miles past Pluto – and the farthest house probe flyby in historical past.

Added excellent news is that New Horizons principal investigator and planetary scientist, Alan Stern, is ready for puzzlement.

Artist’s idea of the New Horizons spacecraft encountering Pluto and its largest moon, Charon (foreground) in July 2015.
Credit score: NASA/Johns Hopkins College Utilized Physics Laboratory/Southwest Analysis Institute/Steve Gribben/Alex Parker

I mentioned this new and imminent record-setting flyby with Stern, fleshing out what’s forward for this trailblazing probe – at Ultima Thule…and past.

Go to my new Area.com story:

Encounters with Distant Worlds: An Interview with New Horizons’ Alan Stern (Unique)

https://www.space.com/42843-new-horizons-alan-stern-ultima-thule-interview.html