Category: Pluto

From more than 100 million miles away, New Horizon’s next target barely looks like anything at all. 

The object, known as Ultima Thule, has only just now come into view for that NASA spacecraft’s sensitive cameras, allowing the probe — which brought us never-before-seen, close-up photos of Pluto in July 2015 — to take its first-ever images of the distant world. 

The images show Ultima Thule surrounded by bright background stars dotting the cosmic landscape, all but blotting out the dim, cold, and small object 1 billion miles from Pluto.  Read more…

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View More NASA’s New Horizons just gave us its first look at Ultima Thule, a world 1 billion miles from Pluto

Alright, folks. NASA needs our help. 

The space agency is asking people on the internet — yes, that means you — to help it select a fun nickname for a pretty dryly named but still important object: (486958) 2014 MU69.

MU69 is an object — or possibly two objects — floating in the Kuiper belt, Pluto’s part of space which is filled with small objects left over from the dawn of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.

Scientists need a nickname for MU69 because it’s going to get a lot of attention in the coming years. 

On Jan. 1, 2019, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft — which flew past Pluto in July 2015 — will fly by MU69, taking an up-close look at a world (or worlds) never seen in detail before. Read more…

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View More NASA wants the internet to nickname a distant object 1 billion miles past Pluto