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Arthur T. Knackerbracket writes:

NASA has determined New Horizons' next target:

Now that the probe has finished its Pluto fly-by – although, as NASA notes, it's still busily transmitting the bulk of the images and data it collected back to Earth – the agency says it reckons a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) called 2014 MU69 is a suitable next-stop.

Since 2014 MU69 is nearly a billion miles past the probe's current location, it would take until January 1, 2019 to get there.

While mission scientists won't be able to seek funding approval for the mission extension until 2016, NASA explains it needs to set New Horizons on its new course this year, so that the probe could reach the KBO with "healthy fuel margins".

Hence the nomination of 2014 MU69 as the target. Ground-based surveys, NASA explains, had failed to identify any KBO candidates that New Horizons could reach, and it was only in 2014 that the Hubble Space Telescope spotted potential candidates.

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