NASA Sets Record as ‘New Horizons’ Orbits Close to ‘Ultima Thule’

By: Norhan Mahmoud

CAIRO, Jan. 1 (SEE)- Four Billions miles away from us, NASA’s spacecraft New Horizons has made history through entering the furthermost space field right beyond freezing Pluto and next to Kuiper Belt’s 20 miles long peanut-shaped rock nicknamed Ultima Thule. 

NASA’s spacecraft is on a mission that scientists pin hopes on to resolve riddles and mysteries about how the solar system came into being. New Horizons is expected to enrich human’s knowledge about the nature and composition of the atmosphere in that distant region as it floats 2200 miles over Thule.

At 12:33 a.m. Eastern the probe penetrated the third zone of the Kuiper belt region, yet scientists had to wait till morning to confirm its successful arrival. 

“We set a record. Never before has a spacecraft explored anything so far away,” said the project’s lead scientist who led the countdown to the close encounter, Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute according to the Associated Press (AP). “Think of it. We’re a billion miles farther than Pluto.”

Interestingly, Thule was documented as the furthermost area beyond the known world in medieval and classical literature- we need to leaf through ancient novels extensively to propose what’s upcoming!

As per Reuters, astronomers have selected Ultima Thule to be part of New Horizons’s extended mission after they discovered in 2014 using the Hubble Space Telescope. 

This breakthrough is another achievement for New Horizons that was once the first to visit Pluto in 2015 and provided scientists with exceptional footage that redefined much about the size and nature of the dwarf planet together with its five moons.

Of course, the spacecraft that renders at a speed of 31,500 mph is anticipated to go even deeper into space leaving humans eager to know more about the universe’s secrets!