New Horizons
NASA's Mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt
Mission Overview
Mission
New Horizons Mission Phases
The Team
Spacecraft
Spacecraft Systems and Components
Payload
Ground Stations
Data Collection
Where Is New Horizons?
Current Position
Passing the Planets
Journey through the Kuiper Belt
Science Operations Center
Publications
Q&A
The Path to Pluto and Arrokoth
Mission Design
Mission Timeline
Launch
Jupiter Encounter
Pluto Flyby
Arrokoth Flyby
KEM2 Science
KEM2 Overview
KEM2 Overview
Planetary Science
Heliophysics
Astrophysics
Publications
Pluto
Pluto
Why Pluto?
About Clyde Tombaugh
The Pluto System
Pluto
Charon
Moons
Publications
Pluto Perspective
Arrokoth
Arrokoth
About the Kuiper Belt
About Gerard Kuiper
About Arrokoth (2014 MU69)
Exploring the Kuiper Belt
Publications
News Center
News Center
News Archive
Current
Archives
New Horizons on Twitter
Meetings
The PI's Perspective
Current
Archives
Spotlight Presentations
Discovery Stories
Science Perspective
Science Shorts
Media Contacts
Resources
Fact Sheets
Press Kits
Press Conferences
Publications
Glossary
Subscribe to eNews
Galleries
Galleries
Images
Featured Images
Spacecraft Photos
Launch Photos
Event Photos
Raw Images
Arrokoth Encounter
Pluto Encounter
Jupiter Encounter
Podcasts
Videos
Animations
Live Events
Data Movies
Mission Videos
Graphics
Artist Renderings
Exhibit Artwork
Infographics
Posters
Printables
Image/Video Use Policy
Learn
Learn
Interactives
Chat with the Team
Names to Pluto
Eyes on the Solar System
Student Dust Counter
Fun Facts
Activities
Educational Materials
Models
Get Involved
Features
Toolkit
Pluto Flyby Memories
Educator Fellows
Parallax Program
Uranus-Neptune Observations
Resources
Toolkit
Fact Sheets
Press Kits
Press Conferences
Publications
Glossary
Featured Video
Loading the player...
View all videos »
Galleries
Images > Featured Images
Featured Images
Spacecraft Photos
Launch Photos
Event Photos
Click on image to enlarge.
Ultima Thule on Christmas Eve
Release Date:
December 26, 2018
Keywords:
LORRI
,
MU69
,
News Article
This image shows the first detection of 2014 MU69 (nicknamed "Ultima Thule"), using the highest resolution mode (known as "1x1") of the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard the New Horizons spacecraft. Three separate images, each with an exposure time of 0.5 seconds, were combined to produce the image shown here. All three images were taken on Dec. 24, 2018, at 01:56 UT spacecraft time and were downlinked to Earth about 12 hours later.
The original images are 1024 x 1024 pixels, but only a 256 x 256 pixel portion, centered on Ultima (circled in orange), is displayed. The other objects visible in this image are nearby stars. At the time this image was taken, Ultima was 4 billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) from the Sun and 6.3 million miles (10 million kilometers) from the New Horizons spacecraft.
Previous LORRI images of Ultima required using its lower resolution mode ("4x4"), which has one-quarter the resolution of 1x1 mode, and longer exposure times, 30 seconds each for the images taken from mid-August through early December 2018. The new higher resolution images taken from now until New Horizons’ Jan. 1 flight past Ultima on will enable better optical navigation to the small Kuiper Belt object and higher spatial resolution searches for any nearby moons.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
« Prev
Next »