Thule | Common News Update

Jan272019 by adminNo Comments

Nasa's New Horizons: Best image yet of 'space snowman' Ultima Thule

Science

The New Horizons probe has sent back its best picture yet of the small, icy object Ultima Thule, which it flew past on New Year's Day.The image was acquired when the Nasa spacecraft was just 6,700km from its target, which scientists think is two bodies lightly fused together - giving the look of a snowman.Surface details are now much clearer. New Horizons' data is coming back very slowly, over the next 20 months.This is partly to do with the great distance involved (the separation is 6.5 billion km) but is also limited by the small power output of the probe's transmitter and the size (and availability) of the receive antennas here on Earth. It all makes for glacial bit rates.The new image was obtained with New Horizons' ...

Jan262019 by adminNo Comments

NASA's New Horizons shares clearest image yet of Ultima Thule

Science

Jan. 25 (UPI) -- NASA has released the most high-resolution image of Ultima Thule captured by the space agency's New Horizons probe. The image was taken on Jan. 1, but scientists working on the mission only recently processed the photograph. The newly released photo was taken using New Horizon's Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera just before the probe reached its closest approach with the Kuiper belt object. Back on Earth, scientists used an image processing technique called deconvolution to make the photo even clearer. Early this month, scientists confirmed that Ultima Thule is a contact binary, a snowman-shaped amalgamation of two spheres. The duo likely came together and fused several hundred million years ago. Thanks to the new image and image processing, scientists are getting a close...

Jan22019 by adminNo Comments

Ultima Thule is first contact binary to be explored by a spacecraft

Science

Jan. 2 (UPI) -- New images and data returned by the New Horizons probe prove Ultima Thule is a snowman-shaped contact binary, the first to be explored by a spacecraft. Early on New Year's Day, New Horizons passed within 2,200 miles of Ultima Thule -- the most distant planetary flyby in history. The Kuiper belt object is currently 4 billion miles from the sun. Scientists weren't able to confirm the flyby until several hours later. It takes a long time for data to travel million of miles across space -- and the first images downloaded by NASA scientists showcased only a fuzzy peanut-like shape. On Wednesday, NASA scientists shared newly downloaded data revealing the distant object at greater resolutions. The new images and data confirmed the icy space rock's classification as a contact bina...

Jan12019 by adminNo Comments

New Horizons: Nasa probe survives flyby of Ultima Thule

Science

The US space agency's New Horizons probe has made contact with Earth to confirm its successful flyby of the icy world known as Ultima Thule. The encounter occurred some 6.5bn km (4bn miles) away, making it the most distant ever exploration of an object in our Solar System. New Horizons acquired gigabytes of photos and other observations during the pass. It will now send these home over the coming months. The radio message from the robotic craft was picked up by one of Nasa's big antennas, in Madrid, Spain.It had taken fully six hours and eight minutes to traverse the great expanse of space between Ultima and Earth. Controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Phys...