New Horizons gears up for its close encounter with Ultima Thule
The Kuiper Belt object, about 6.5 billion kilometers from the sun, will get its first visitor
Ultima Thule is one of the solar system’s most hermitlike homebodies. In the 4.6 billion years since the small icy world formed, astronomers think that it has never moved from its original orbit about 6.5 billion kilometers from the sun. And no other large object has ever come calling.
That’s about to change.
Just after midnight eastern time on January 1, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will zip past Ultima Thule at a distance of about 3,500 kilometers — likely the space rock’s closest visitor ever.