NASA approves new far-flung destination for Pluto space probe

[Renew Deal]

Onwards and outwards. Following its spectacular fly-by of Pluto last July, the New Horizons spacecraft is now officially headed for one final job before its fuel runs out. NASA this week formally approved an extension of the mission to visit 2014 MU69, a small, ancient object just 30 to 40 kilometres across, minuscule compared with the 2370-kilometre diameter of Pluto.

“We’re excited to continue onward into the dark depths of the outer solar system to a science target that wasn’t even discovered when the spacecraft launched in 2006,” said Jim Green, NASA’s director of planetary science.

To reach MU69, New Horizons will head out towards the Kuiper belt, which is home to millions of icy bodies that are reckoned to be remnants from the birth of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. If all goes according to plan, it will reach MU69 on 1 January 2019.

“It’s extremely good news that NASA’s approved the mission extension,” says Wesley Fraser of Queens University Belfast in the UK, who investigates the origins of the solar system. Fraser says that MU69 was among debris that was blown to the fringes of the solar system following the formation of the gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. “We think they formed a lot closer to one another then pushed each other around into their current orbits, but the small stuff ended up in the Kuiper belt.”
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https://www.newscientist.com/article/2095997-nasa-approves-new-far-flung-destination-for-pluto-space-prob

[Just reading posts]

1. One last series of pictures to look forward to from New Horizons!

Unlike Pluto, there won't be series of ever-increasing high resolution pictures to tantalize us as it approaches. It might be a few pixels wide from the camera's point of view a day or two before it gets there, but that will be all. One pass by it, and that's it!

2 1/2 years to go.....

[longship]

2. Funding still has to be approved by Congress.

But that should happen, one would presume.

R&K

[lastlib]

4. GOP: "Why should we spend money chasing space rocks when Benghazi?"

Or, "Bill Clinton's penis?" Or, "Hillary's e-mail?", Or "Obama is black?"

I have serious doubts it'll be funded by these worthless do-nothings.

[longship]

5. Except that AL has a major NASA center.

As do other states. So NASA funding is not a difficult task. Also, keeping the project going is a lot cheaper than launching another probe.

So there's that...

[reACTIONary]

3. Go Atlas, Go Centaur, GO NEW HORIZONS ! !!!