October 24, 2018Media Briefing: New Horizons Team to Preview Ultima Thule Flyby

On Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 12:15 p.m. (EDT), members of the New Horizons team previewed the mission's New Year's 2019 flyby of the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule during a media briefing at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Slides from the briefing can be viewed here »

The Ultima flyby, with closest approach set for 12:33 a.m. EST in Jan. 1, will be the most distant planetary encounter in history. Team members will cover the significance and challenges of this flyby, its science goals and operational timelines, and the Kuiper Belt in the context of solar system exploration.

Presenters were:

• Alan Stern, principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute
• Carey Lisse, science team collaborator, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
• Hal Weaver, project scientist, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
• Kelsi Singer, co-investigator, Southwest Research Institute