NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Ultima Thule, the most distant target in history, in the early hours of New Year's Day, ushering in the era of exploration from the enigmatic Kuiper Belt, a region of primordial objects that holds keys to understanding the origins of the solar system.
The image taken by New Horizons - shown in its original version (left) & sharpened version (on right) - is the most detailed image of the farthest object ever explored by a spacecraft.
486958 Arrokoth (Arrokoth, Hope for 2020 ~ 26 Dec 2019, Philip Sedgwick).
Remember me? You previously knew me as Ultima Thule, a dual-lobe body out beyond Pluto, so curious that a look was warranted by a passing space probe. How coincidental (or not) is that?
In honor of the Sun and Jupiter together and in the nick of time to set an agenda of optimism for 2020, here’s something uplifting to fortify spirits heading into what promises to be a tumultuous year by transit.
As 2018 drew to a close, the New Horizons Space Probe, recently completing a gander at Pluto and Charon, was redirected and flew by the intriguing, double node Kuiper Belt Object that bore the minor solar system object number 486958. That was awkward, so astronomers colloquially named the body Ultima Thule. A very cool phrase for such an unusual object, here are some means for the namesake:
any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world"
a distant unknown region; the extreme limit of travel and discovery
the highest degree attainable
In the recent while Ultima Thule received an official name, sanctioned by the International Astronomical Union: Arrokath.
Arrokath comes from the language of Powhatan Algonquian tribe of the Chesapeake region. A name from this tribe was chosen because a good bit of research on the object has been done by astronomers in that general locale in Virginia.
What does Arrokath mean?
Loosely, it means “sky.”
According to an official statement from the staff of the New Horizon mission, Arrokath, “reflects the inspiration of looking to the skies, and wondering about the stars and worlds beyond our own.”
Nice. Going into 2020 we are reminded to look up, and with awe, reflect upon the majesty of the heavens and how the Universal Mystery unfolds in our lives.
Sure, but I need nuts and bolts to make sense of this, declares an energetically grounded Earthling.
Given a moment’s thought it makes sense Arrokath occupies Capricorn, since it was a minor course correction for New Horizons following its visit to Pluto in Capricorn. In fact, at 0 hour (GMT) today, it traveled through 17 Capricorn 25, in its 298.16 year orbit about the Sun.
Arrokath distinguishes itself as being an object even redder than Pluto, which is pretty dang reddish.
Its perihelion is 10 Pisces 12, its node 9 Virgo 02 (Note: Both positions are heliocentric). At a glance, the name of Arrokath with its pondering of all that is above fits the perihelion/nodal axes perfectly. Nothing could be more Pisces-Virgo than the concept of how parts are to the whole, and how the whole is to the part.
Truly Arrokath inspires us not to lose our way in the minutia and dirty details of life, but to keep the big picture concept (perhaps end game implied) in focus. As well, getting way out there and hanging out with beyond the beyond requires strategic grounding on Earth and attention to the physical reality of life as it passes by.
Says Arrokath, go for awe and inspiration. Go for hopefulness. Go for unlimited vision and perceptions that provide progress and evolution.
Three times in 2020, Jupiter, the grand gift giver of opportunity to those who listen, aligns with Arrokath. This happens in mid-February, late August with Jupiter retrograde and for the last direct conjunction, Jupiter and Arrokath bring it together in late September.
Consider that in these times, more so than ever, those who can extend vision and perspective will be needed. Insights that look forward in time, context and consequence add helpfulness to the perplexing circumstances of our world.
Be one of those contributing to visionary solutions. Become a beacon of hope. Inspire others not to lose their place on the page when the trivialities of life distract. Contribute to the over all good.
Happy Gregorian New Year. Here’s to true 2020 vision.
If you’d like to start the year with an astrological session or a report, click on the links below. This could help extend your vision well into the sky! It’s going to be a busy year, so get a good jump on galactic insights.
For standard sessions and services, links to my store and the new, improved quick order form follow:
New Horizons' Big Reveal On MU69: Ultima Thule Is A Typical 'Future Comet'
“Volatile, icy materials are abundant on these comets, and change phase rapidly when they're exposed to sunlight. Ultima Thule is currently rotating and tumbling in a similar fashion to these known, close-in comets. The only difference? It's still incredibly distant from the Sun, causing its ices to remain intact. Ultima Thule looks just like a typical cometary nucleus, marking the first time we've imaged one in its place of origin: the Kuiper belt.”
Whenever you do something new and unprecedented, you have to be prepared for surprises. You might have expectations for what you’ll find, but that’s no substitute for doing the experiment. In the case of comets, we’ve thought for a long time that they originate from far beyond Neptune, with the majority of the best-known ones being periodic and sourced from the Kuiper belt. Many of them have simple, single-object nuclei, while others appear to be contact binaries. When we visited our first comet-sized world still in the Kuiper belt, one that had never closely approached the Sun, what would we find?
That’s what 2014 MU69, also known as Ultima Thule, actually is. Here’s what New Horizons has taught us so far!
New Horizons: 2014 MU69 from ~500,000 miles, one of the highest-resolution images sent back prior to the flyby. Released at a JHUAPL press conference that just wrapped up a few minutes ago. Some better images should be coming down in the next few days. Then we take a nice break for solar conjunction, because of course that would have to happen now, and the tasty download goodness should resume after that.
The first detailed image of Ultima Thule, showing two rounded lobes with a bright “neck” connecting them. It was taken at 5:01 Universal Time on Jan. 1, 2019, just 30 minutes before clo…
At 05:33 UTC on January 1, 2019, New Year's Day, New Horizons will fly by Ultima Thule (also known as 2014 MU69), passing within 3,500 kilometres. During this flyby, both objects will be more than 6,600,000,000 kilometres away from Earth. At this distance, radio signals take over 6 hours to travel from New Horizons to Earth!
(Image sauce: NASA/JHUAPL)
New Horizons is moving so quickly that on early December 29, just over 3 days before the flyby, Ultima was still super far away from New Horizons, resolving to less than a pixel across on New Horizon’s camera:
(Image sauce: NASA/JHUAPL, with arrow by Phil Plait)
About a day and a half before the flyby, Ultima started coming into focus, enlarging to ~3 pixels across (original image on left, enhanced image on right):
(Image sauce: NASA/JHUAPL)
The above picture was taken on December 30, 2018, 16:56 UTC; i.e. 37 hours before closest approach. At this moment in time, New Horizons was still 1,900,000 kilometres away from Ultima, but closing in at a relative speed of 14 kilometres per second.
The encounter will be so fast that the probe will perform its own preprogrammed set of observations during the flyby, and it won’t start sending data back until the encounter is over. So it might be a day or so before the images from the flyby start being posted.
Further reading (including the story of how astronomers found this faint-ass icy boi despite observational interference from Milky Way stars and the pressing deadline of finding a post-Pluto target early enough so that they actually had enough time to design and execute a precise engine burn): https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/get-ready-for-humanitys-most-distant-encounter-tonights-the-night-for-2014-mu69
