NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft hurtles towards tiny, icy world beyond Pluto
A tiny, icy world a billion miles beyond Pluto is getting a New Year’s Day visitor. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is set to fly past a mysterious object nicknamed Ultima Thule. It will become the most distant world ever explored by humankind.
.@NASANewHorizons is making its final approach to #UltimaThule, an icy object located ~1 billion miles past Pluto! Get the latest updates and find out where and when to watch the most distant planetary flyby ever this #NewYearsEve: https://t.co/MT909RJbMM pic.twitter.com/fBsLbt6hd0
— NASA (@NASA) December 30, 2018
The flyby comes three-and-a-half years after New Horizons swung past Pluto and yielded the first close-ups of the dwarf planet.
This time, the drama will unfold 4 billion miles from Earth, so far away it will be 10 hours before flight controllers in Laurel, Maryland, know whether the spacecraft survived the close encounter.
Lead scientist Alan Stern said the team has worked years for this moment and now, “it’s happening!!”
