Several months after New Horizons' historic flyby of Pluto, scientists have decided on the probe's next destination: a Kuiper Belt object (KBO) named 2014 MU69. This will complete the second component of New Horizons' mission; The first, of course, being a survey a Pluto and its associated moons.
When the interplanetary space probe New Horizons launched in January 2006 one of it's main purposes was to study such objects. These ancient bodies are, in a sense, the remnants of the solar system. Studying their composition could help scientists understand how distant spherical bodies accreted.
2014 MU69 was discovered in 2014 by the Hubble Space Telescope and met the orbital criteria for New Horizons. After the Pluto flyby, New Horizons began making a series of trajectory adjustments in August and expects to reach 2014 MU69 in January 2019. Once it does, the probe will attempt to resolve a series of observational objectives. These include:
- a geologic survey of the bodies' surface
- a collection of surface data including temperature and composition
- a search for geologic activity
- a search for any orbiting material
New Horizons' exploration of 2014 MU69 will be the longest distance exploration of a celestial body ever; An exploration that will likely not be replicated for many years. The data New Horizons' collects will help improve scientists' understanding of how the solar system formed while taking some interesting pictures along the way.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_MU69
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/new-horizons-a-billion-miles-to-2014-mu69-10012015/
When the interplanetary space probe New Horizons launched in January 2006 one of it's main purposes was to study such objects. These ancient bodies are, in a sense, the remnants of the solar system. Studying their composition could help scientists understand how distant spherical bodies accreted.
2014 MU69 was discovered in 2014 by the Hubble Space Telescope and met the orbital criteria for New Horizons. After the Pluto flyby, New Horizons began making a series of trajectory adjustments in August and expects to reach 2014 MU69 in January 2019. Once it does, the probe will attempt to resolve a series of observational objectives. These include:
- a geologic survey of the bodies' surface
- a collection of surface data including temperature and composition
- a search for geologic activity
- a search for any orbiting material
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_MU69
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/new-horizons-a-billion-miles-to-2014-mu69-10012015/
3 points. It will be so incredibly cool to see these data in 2019!
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