At 12:33 am EST on January 1, 2019, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to make a flyby of MU69, also known as Ultima Thule, which is the name given to distant places beyond the known world. The spacecraft will zoom by at 14 kilometers per hour, and will pass by at 3500 kilometers from the surface of the 35 kilometer wide object. This is the most distant object that humanity has ever visited – 6.6 billion kilometers (4.1 billion miles) from Earth. The first data will take approximately 8 hours to reach Earth. Unfortunately, due to the U.S. government shutdown, NASA’s video channel is likely to be dark. If the flyby is successful, then the first images should be out late New Year’s Day. I am sure that they will be in every major newspaper and all over the interweb. It is an incredibly challenging task, but if successful, the images from the flyby will give us a glimpse into the early days of the Solar System.
Update January 1, 2019.
The New Horizons flyby mission was successful. Images and information can be found here and here.
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