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After crossing Pluto in 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft approached this Tuesday (1 st) the most distant object ever explored in space: Ultima Thule, a 30-kilometer ice-covered rock and lies about 6.5 billion kilometers from the Earth in the Kuiper Belt – where it is believed that the remaining celestial bodies of the formation of the solar system are. There was even an unpublished song by Queen's guitarist Brian May to celebrate this feat (read more below).
New Horizons was to fly over Ultima Thule's nearest point at 3:33 am (GMT). However, at the distance from the object to the Earth, the information has not yet reached NASA. The first data should be received later this morning.
Hal Weaver, a mission scientist and researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, said the tiny celestial body is "probably the most primitive object ever discovered by a spaceship , the best possible vestige of the old solar system ".
New Year, Celestial Bodies and Queen
During New Year's Eve, the New Horizons team celebrated the possible pbadage of the probe through the celestial body. In social networks, there was a simulation of the flyover and pictures of the celebration.
The guitarist and astrophysicist Queen Brian May took part in the event and released a song specially composed for Ultima Thule.
The song is available on Queen's official YouTube channel ( watch below ).
"This mission concerns human curiosity.Men needs to explore and see what makes the universe work.My music is a hymn to the human effort", wrote Brian May, Queen's guitarist and astrophysicist, on his Instagram account.
Why explore Ultima Thule?
After the probe pbaded Pluto, the
object aroused the interest of NASA scientists as it lies in Kiuper's belt, in the "" edge "of our solar system, where are the celestial bodies preserved since the beginning of our formation.
For scientists, to explore this object is to look back in time.
Originally cataloged as (486958) 2014 MU69, the first is known under the name "orpo celeste was named Ultima Thule following a public consultation organized by NASA. It is a Latin term that means something like "a place beyond the known world".
Thule Ultimate: the artistic design shows what, for the moment, the scientists can only speculate on the appearance of the celestial body – Photo: NASA / JHU-APL / SWRI
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