New Horizons Kuiper Belt encounter - success - 2014 MU69 Ultima Thule data downlinking now

[Hagbard Celine 10848]

At 23:29 central last night New Horizons bagged a double.  At 09:29 central this morning the New Horizons team, 10 hours after closest approach, confirmed nominal function of the science patterns and data capture pre-programmed for the encounter.  Ultima Thule is 1 Billion miles away.

 

Fantastic fact sheet:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Resources/Fact-Sheets/17-04341_NASA-NHKEM_12-11-17.pdf

 

This morning's press release:

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190101

 

Two science pressers are scheduled for 1pm central tomorrow (Wednesday) and 1pm central Thursday:

https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

Initial imagery indicates a "bowling pin" spinning laterally.

 

 

Fantastic tweets from around the geekosphere:

https://twitter.com/search?q=%40nasanewhorizons&src=rela

 

 

additional resources:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Resources.php

[HornsOverIthaca 2333]

Can’t wait.  Great name too.  Sounds like the name of an East German metal band that’s been behind the wall for too long.

[Radical Larry 28539]

[LongestHorn 759]

Brian May from Queen as many know is also an astrophysicist.  

 

[Braff Zacklin 13552]

On 1/1/2019 at 5:33 PM, LongestHorn said:

Brian May from Queen as many know is also an astrophysicist. 

But his car will always be his first love.