Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                               2018 December 29
                                      [2]
                        New Horizons at Ultima Thule
  Illustration Credit: Carlos Hernandez for NASA [3] , Johns Hopkins Univ./APL
                    [4] , Southwest Research Institute [5]

Explanation: When we celebrate the start of 2019, on January 1 the New
Horizons spacecraft [6]  will flyby Ultima Thule [7] . A world of the Kuiper
belt [8]  6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, the nickname Ultima Thule [9]
(catalog designation 2014 MU69) fittingly means "beyond the known world".
Following its 2015 flyby of Pluto [10] , New Horizons was targeted for this
journey, attempting the most distant flyby for a spacecraft from Earth by
approaching Ultima Thule to within about 3500 kilometers. The tiny world
itself is about 30 kilometers in size. This year, an observing campaign with
Earth-based telescopes [11] determined the shape of the object to be a contact
binary or a close binary sytem as in this artist's illustration. New Horizons
will  [12]  image close up its unexplored surface in the dim light of the
distant Sun.

                        Tomorrow's picture: galaxy tree

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [24] (MTU [25] ) & Jerry Bonnell [26]
                                  (UMCP [27] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [28] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [29]
              A service of: ASD [30]  at NASA [31]  / GSFC [32]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [33]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1812/NewHorizonsApproachesMU69_1024.jpg
  [3] http://www.nasa.gov/
  [4] http://www.jhuapl.edu/
  [5] http://www.swri.edu/
  [6] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
  [7] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/
nasa-announces-media-activities-for-new-horizons-new-year-s-kuiper-belt-flyby
  [8] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/kuiper-belt/ overview/
  [9] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Ultima/Ultima-Thule.php
  [10] ap150918.html
  [11] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/ News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20180731
  [12] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/ index.html
  [13] ap181228.html
  [14] archivepix.html
  [15] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [16] lib/aptree.html
  [17] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [18] calendar/allyears.html
  [19] /apod.rss
  [20] lib/edlinks.html
  [21] lib/about_apod.html
  [22] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=181229
  [23] ap181230.html
  [24] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [26] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [27] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [28] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [29] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [30] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [31] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [32] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [33] http://www.mtu.edu/

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