On the "Edge of the Universe": New Horizons is as close as possible to Ultima Thule



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The New Horizons mission is as close as possible to the 2014 MU69 Kuiper Belt or Ultima Thule.

This is indicated on the website of the mission

The reconciliation took place on January 1, 2019. The station then completed a 140-second flight beyond the MU69 of 2014 on January 1, 2019, with a minimum distance of approximately 3,500 km.

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As part of the rapprochement, scientific instruments and cameras should It has been shown how much body the object is composed, as well as from other information about this cosmic body.

The transmission of collected data to Earth will last until the autumn of 2020.

What is Thule Ultima? This is the most distant subject & # 39; the object of the solar system, to which an automatic station has never been visited. Astronomical observations made last year indicate that Ultima Thule will likely be an irregularly shaped fragment of a diameter of 30 to 40 km, or several asteroids of 20 km in diameter each.

What is New Horizons? This station, launched January 19, 2006 with the Atlas V launcher from the launch site of Cape Canaveral, Florida. In April 2006, the probe crossed the orbit of Mars in February 2007, performed a gravitational maneuver in the vicinity of Jupiter, flew over Saturn in June 2008, in March 2011, crossed the orbit of 39, Uranus and in July 2011, it was at a distance of 12,500 km. miles from Pluto.

More news about the events of the world of technology, gadgets, artificial intelligence and space, read in section Techno

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