Tag: NASA New Horizons
-
Five years after Pluto encounter, New Horizons probe does a far-out parallax experiment
Queen guitarist (and astrophysicist) Brian May, a member of the New Horizons science team, uses his patented OWL viewer to check out the stereo images of Proxima Centauri that he created by combining pictures from Earth-based telescopes and the New Horizons spacecraft. (Photo courtesy of Brian May, via New Horizons / JHUAPL / SwRI /…
-
How a space snowman called Arrokoth is shedding new light on planetary origins
A computer-generated reconstruction of Arrokoth’s shape makes it look like a squashed snowman, but slightly less squashed than originally thought. (NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI Image / Roman Tkachenko) The space snowman that was the focus of a close encounter with NASA’s New Horizons probe last year is helping scientists answer a cosmic question: How…
-
‘Ultima Thule’ no more: New Horizons’ space snowman is named Arrokoth
A composite image based on data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the icy Kuiper Belt object formerly known as 2014 MU69 or Ultima Thule, and now called Arrokoth. (NASA / SwRI / JHUAPL Photo) The snowman-shaped object that NASA’s New Horizons probe flew past nearly a year ago on the solar system’s icy fringe…
-
Ultimate Ultima: New Horizons team shares sharpest view of space snowman
The most detailed images of a Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69 or Ultima Thule — obtained just minutes before the spacecraft’s closest approach — have a resolution of about 110 feet per pixel. This processed, composite picture combines nine individual images taken with the New Horizons spacecraft’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager. The image…
-
New Horizons probe sends a sharper view of space snowman … with a bashed-in face
This image of 2014 MU69, also known as Ultima Thule, was captured by New Horizons’ MVIC camera on Jan. 1 and stored in the probe’s memory banks. The image was sent back to Earth for processing on Jan. 18-19. (NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI Photo) NASA’s New Horizons probe has already shown that its icy…
-
New Horizons probe delivers 3-D views of cosmic snowman, plus mysteries to solve
This first 3-D view of the icy Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69 or Ultima Thule is best seen using red-blue glasses. Click on the image for a larger view. (NASA / JHU / SwRI via YouTube) LAUREL, Md. — The science team behind NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft today released the first 3-D image of…
-
NASA’s New Horizons probe reveals the shape of its icy target: ‘It’s a snowman!’
The latest view from NASA’s New Horizons probe shows an icy object known as 2014 MU69 or as Ultima Thule to consist of two balls of icy material stuck together. (NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI Photo) LAUREL, Md. — The New Horizons spacecraft’s picture of an icy object 4 billion miles from Earth became a…
-
Success! NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft ‘phones home’ from 4 billion miles away
An image based on pre-flyby observations from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows Ultima Thule to be an elongated object that’s about 21 miles long. (JHUAPL / SwRI / NASA via YouTube) LAUREL, Md. — NASA’s New Horizons science team today received confirmation that its spacecraft survived a New Year’s encounter with an icy world 4 billion…
-
New Horizons team gets first fuzzy glimpse of elongated icy world on solar system’s edge
The left image shows a raw, pixel-by-pixel view of an icy object known as Ultima Thule, as captured by NASA’s New Horizons probe at 11:56 a.m. ET Dec. 30 from a distance of 1.2 million miles. (JHUAPL / SwRI / NASA via YouTube) LAUREL, Md. — The science team for NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft released…
-
New Horizons team celebrates history’s farthest flyby with New Year’s sparkle
LAUREL, Md. — Hundreds of well-wishers took part in a different kind of New Year’s countdown, 33 minutes past midnight, to celebrate the moment when NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew past an icy object known as Ultima Thule, more than 4 billion miles away. The revelers here at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory didn’t…