![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Solar_Conjunction.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAs New Horizons and its scientists prepare for the end of a solar conjunction in two days and the resumption of science data downlink from the craft of its historic flyby of 2014 MU69 on New Year\u2019s Day, Alan Stern and his team are busy analyzing the first few datasets returned from the spacecraft before the solar conjunction began on 4 January.<\/p>\n
New Horizons current status:<\/b><\/p>\n
As viewed from Earth, New Horizons is now directly behind the Sun in an alignment known as a solar conjunction. During this period, communications with the spacecraft are not possible due to radio interference produced by the Sun\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The cessation of communications was known well in advance of the New Year\u2019s Day flyby of 2014 MU69, with the New Horizons science teams understanding they would only get a small amount of data back before all communication with the craft stopped for five days.<\/p>\n
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An example of a solar conjunction \u2014 with Earth and Mars on opposite sides of the Sun relative to each other. (Credit: NASA)<\/p>\n
The solar conjunction and communications blackout period will end Thursday, 10 January, at which point the steady stream of data from New Horizons will resume. \u201cThe data will start to come back down again and begin this long 20-month period in which we\u2019ll be emptying the solid-state recorder of all the different kinds of data we\u2019ve taken \u2013 literally hundreds of images and spectra and other data types,\u201d said Dr. Alan Stern, New Horizons Principal Investigator.<\/p>\n
But just because data is not flowing back from the spacecraft right now doesn\u2019t mean the team is relaxing. On the contrary, New Horizons\u2019 science teams are hard at work analyzing the data already returned from the spacecraft.<\/p>\n
The moons of 2014 MU69?<\/b><\/p>\n
It might sound like a funny thing. One of the first things the New Horizon science team is looking for around MU69 is evidence of a moon or moons orbiting the small body. <\/p>\n
SpaceX (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n 2014 MU69 is only 21 miles long and significantly smaller in width, and looking for moons might seem counterintuitive. But in fact it is quite vital in terms of understanding the interior composition of this Kuiper Belt Object (KBO). <\/p>\n The importance of understanding 2014 MU69\u2019s interior lies with the body\u2019s importance of understanding the early formation of the solar system and would reveal what was present in the stellar disk of dust and material surrounding the Sun after its birth \u2013 the disk from which almost everything we see in the solar system today was created or formed from. <\/p>\n In turn, this would tell us if our current models of solar system formation and development are accurate or if they need to be adjusted based on what 2014 MU69 tells us about what was present in the earliest days of the solar system.<\/p>\n