New Horizons: Nasa probe survives flyby of Ultima Thule
The US space agency's New Horizons probe has made contact with Earth to confirm its successful flyby of the icy world known as Ultima Thule.
The encounter occurred some 6.5bn km (4bn miles) away, making it the most distant ever exploration of an object in our Solar System.
New Horizons acquired gigabytes of photos and other observations during the pass.
It will now send these home over the coming months.
[...] Even just the final picture released from the approach phase to the flyby contained tantalising information. Ultima appears in it as just a blob, but immediately it has allowed researchers to refine their estimate of the object's size - about 35km by 15km.
It should be become clear within the next day or two whether or not 2014 MU69 is double-lobed or a binary object.
Additionally, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory self-reports:
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, designed, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Follow the New Horizons mission on Twitter and use the hashtags #UltimaThule, #UltimaFlyby and #askNewHorizons to join the conversation. Live updates and links to mission information are also available on http://pluto.jhuapl.edu and www.nasa.gov.
Also at: Ars Technica, The New York Times, ScienceNews, and phys.org.
Previously: Final Planning for the New Horizons Flyby of 2014 MU69 (Ultima Thule) Underway
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The New Horizons team is preparing for their spacecraft to fly by 2014 MU69 (nicknamed Ultima Thule) on Jan. 1, 2019. At the current planned flyby distance, the spacecraft's instruments will take higher resolution imagery of the object(s) than what was seen at Pluto:
Because Ultima is small — probably just 25 km (16 miles) or so in diameter — it will remain just a point of light to New Horizons until about 2 days before the close flyby. However, in the final hours around closest approach, New Horizons will be able to map Ultima at higher resolutions than we achieved at Pluto, because we will fly by Ultima at a much closer range than we did at Pluto
We will obtain geologic mapping resolutions as high as 35 meters (110 feet) per pixel using LORRI. By comparison, our highest resolution Pluto mapping was about 80 meters (260 feet) per pixel.
With the Ralph imager, we also plan to acquire color images of Ultima with resolutions as high as 330 meters (0.2 miles) per pixel, and composition mapping at a resolution of 1.8 km (1.1 miles) per pixel. Stereo imaging made on approach will map the surface topography of Ultima at about 80 meters (260 feet) per pixel.The first detailed imagery of Ultima will be downlinked to Earth once the spacecraft has completed its main flyby objectives late on January 1st, and will be released to the public after processing and image analysis on January 2nd. More images, as well as spectra and other data sets, will be downlinked on January 2nd, 3rd, and 4th — so get ready to learn a lot about Ultima in the first week of the new year! Then the spacecraft will slip behind the Sun as seen from Earth and image transmissions will cease for 5 days until the spacecraft reappears and can resume data transmissions.
The total data volume collected on the Ultima flyby will be close to 50 gigabits. Because New Horizons is so far from Earth, about 6 billion km (4 billion miles), its data transmission speed is now only about 1,000 bits per second. This limitation, and the fact that we share NASA's Deep Space Network of tracking and communication antennas with over a dozen other NASA missions, means that it will take 20 months or more, until late in 2020, to send all of the data about Ultima and its environment back to Earth.
The team has until Dec. 16 to determine if there are any hazards (such as dust or satellites) that will necessitate changing the closest approach distance from 3,500 km to 10,000 km.
[According to the Deep Space Networkpage, at the time of this writing, the New Horizons probe is at a distance of 6.56 billion km with a round-trip light time of 12.16 hours. We're gonna need some faster light! --Ed.]
See also: Why NASA chose Senegal to observe a frozen world beyond Pluto
Previously: One Last Stellar Occultation of 2014 MU69 to be Observed Before Jan. 1 New Horizons Flyby
New Horizons Spacecraft Approaches 2014 MU69; OSIRIS-REx Nears 101955 Bennu
New Movie Shows Ultima Thule from an Approaching New Horizons
This movie shows the propeller-like rotation of Ultima Thule in the seven hours between 20:00 UT (3 p.m. ET) on Dec. 31, 2018, and 05:01 UT (12:01 a.m.) on Jan. 1, 2019, as seen by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard NASA's New Horizons as the spacecraft sped toward its close encounter with the Kuiper Belt object at 05:33 UT (12:33 a.m. ET) on Jan. 1.
The images, which cover about a half of a rotation, help illustrate the solution to Ultima Thule's apparent lack of brightness variations:
The brief video also shows why New Horizons didn't detect any brightness variations from Ultima Thule during the approach phase, a surprising development that initially puzzled the mission team. The lack of such a "light curve" is expected for spherical objects, which don't shift from a viewer's perspective as they rotate, but early data indicated that the 21-mile-long (34 km) Ultima Thule was highly elongated.
As we can now see, it was all about New Horizons' orientation to Ultima Thule. The object's pole of rotation was pointing directly at the approaching spacecraft, so New Horizons didn't see any appreciable changes in the light bouncing off Ultima Thule.
Previously: New Horizons Survives Flyby, Begins Sending Back Data
New Images Reveal Structure, Color, and Features of 2014 MU69 (Ultima Thule)
New Horizons' Newest and Best-Yet View of Ultima Thule
Obtained with the wide-angle Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) component of New Horizons' Ralph instrument, this image was taken when the KBO was 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers) from the spacecraft, at 05:26 UT (12:26 a.m. EST) on Jan. 1 – just seven minutes before closest approach. With an original resolution of 440 feet (135 meters) per pixel, the image was stored in the spacecraft's data memory and transmitted to Earth on Jan. 18-19. Scientists then sharpened the image to enhance fine detail. (This process – known as deconvolution – also amplifies the graininess of the image when viewed at high contrast.)
The oblique lighting of this image reveals new topographic details along the day/night boundary, or terminator, near the top. These details include numerous small pits up to about 0.4 miles (0.7 kilometers) in diameter. The large circular feature, about 4 miles (7 kilometers) across, on the smaller of the two lobes, also appears to be a deep depression. Not clear is whether these pits are impact craters or features resulting from other processes, such as "collapse pits" or the ancient venting of volatile materials.
MVIC (Ralph) has a lower resolution than LORRI, which should have taken its best images at around 30-35 meters per pixel.
Also at Spaceflight Now, BBC, and TechCrunch.
Previously: Final Planning for the New Horizons Flyby of 2014 MU69 (Ultima Thule) Underway
New Horizons Survives Flyby, Begins Sending Back Data
New Images Reveal Structure, Color, and Features of 2014 MU69 (Ultima Thule)
Animation Shows Rotation of 2014 MU69 (Ultima Thule)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @05:43AM (1 child)
They didn't even manage to get through the first day of the year without fat shaming Ultima Thule by calling it a blob. Then they speculated about whether it was double-lobed or Bi. Those folks are in for some serious sensitivity training. /sarc
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday January 02 2019, @04:08PM
It's known as a Trans Neptonian Object. Also known as a "teenie." Because it looks, hopefully, like a magnificent pair of knockers. And we're looking very closely at that one. Because we sent our best Robot to fly right over it. Without JPL, without California -- so important. Because we might not keep California. And it's flying beautifully. Piloted from fabulous Huntsville, Alabama. Better than anybody could've expected. PERFECTO. I'll tell you, Space Force is coming very soon, folks. Somebody needs to set up the Gofundme. And when it comes, our foes -- and our competitors (Hi Vlad!) -- will remember this flight. And they will be VERY NERVOUS!!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @06:53AM (1 child)
Is this going to be the meme of 2019?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 02 2019, @12:21PM
I don't know, I'll send your post to facebook and find out. It'll take a while for me to reply. I forgot to send in my bowel movement statistics to Facebook and Zuckerberg is all up in my rectum about it.