Tuesday, January 01, 2019

NASA reaches the "Ultima" destination

NASA's New Horizons probe has extended human reach to a place never explored: Ultima Thule, a Kupier Belt object shaped like a big bowling pin.  In addition to the close flyby and the photos and data, one thing to remember is that the solar system may be big, but this is well beyond the normally accepted boundaries, over 6.5 billion km from here.   It's about 20km long, and it was intercepted (remember, you have to HIT a spot marked from Earth as only a dot on a telescope photo) a good 10 hours, as light/radio travels, from the receiving stations here at home.  We humans can do some remarkable stuff.. Let's do more. 

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