Soh Kam Yung

Post by Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society on what's going to happen during the New Horizons encounter with Ultima Thule.

#Exploration #SpaceProbes #NewHorizons #KuiperBeltObjects #UltimaThule #Space

[ http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/what-to-expect-new-horizons-mu69-ultima-thule.html ]

What to Expect When New Horizons Visits 2014 MU69, Ultima Thule

New Horizons is rapidly approaching its New Year’s encounter with the most distant world ever visited, 2014 MU69. Closest approach will be at a distance of 3,500 kilometers at about 05:33 on 1 January UTC.

Dec 19, 2018 at 2:36amWeb
Show threadEd SDec 19, 2018

"MU69 is small and faint: Even 3 days away from encounter, it will still only appear as one pixel. So nearly all of New Horizons’ time through 28 December will be spent snapping photos for optical navigation, one set of images per day, and turning back to send them to Earth. Only in the final days before flyby will we see the shift against background stars, reducing the uncertainty in MU69’s position. The final update for pointing will be about 3 days before closest approach."

@sohkamyung