NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft approaches Ultima Thule, making it the most distant object ever to be explored

In what is set to be a historic moment in space exploration, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft - launched in 2006 - is set to make its long-awaited approach to Ultima Thule, one of the most distant objects from the Kuiper belt. This will be mankind’s farthest exploration mission into another world and will photograph the distant object a little after midnight on the 1st of January 2019. This will be an excellent way for NASA to celebrate the New Year.

The Kuiper belt is located in the outer solar system and consists mainly of small objects, much like the asteroid belt that is between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, but much farther. This area is of great interest to the community of astronomers, given the fact that it has largely remained unchanged due to solar forces over billions of years. This is of great scientific value, since it provides a glimpse of the distant past, about 4.5 billion years ago right after the birth of the solar system.

When a star is formed, all the cosmic dust and debris around it coalesce to form planets and satellites. However, given the vast distance from the sun and the gravitational pull from Neptune, the Kuiper belt objects have not been able to form a planet. In other words, objects like Ultima Thule have remained in their primordial form, unchanged since the birth of our solar system.

This will be a historic moment for NASA and mankind as a whole.