Ultima Thule Flyby
The New Horizons spacecraft successfully completed it’s flyby of Ultima Thule (2014 MU69) at 12:33am on January 1st 2019. So far there has not been a lot of information released due to the slow (but steady) retrieval of data from the spacecraft, but the initial images are amazing:
After flying by the most distant object ever explored, @NASANewHorizons beamed back the 1st pictures & science data from #UltimaThule. This data is helping us understand how planets form — both those in our own solar system & those orbiting other stars: https://t.co/cp8lE03Cl5 pic.twitter.com/CUaOK1LZBG
— NASA (@NASA) January 2, 2019
I have been following the New Horizons mission since it’s launch in January 2006, and it’s encounter with Pluto on July 14th 2015. I think it is absolutely incredible that it has accomplished everything that it has so far, and that it is able to send back images and scientific information from over 6 billion km away.
It is going to be an interesting year for space exploration and space launches in 2019, and I am very excited for all of it.