I find it truly amazing that New Horizons was able to take photos of a 20 mile object whilst flying past at ~8 miles/sec - that’s an incredibly small space and time window within which to capture the images. Does anyone know how NASA manages to pilot spacecraft with this level of precision? What kind of engineering processes do you need to enable this?
Kind of sucks that this is the big first picture that is being published. The LORRI, while an impressive piece of hardware in and of itself, is not built for high detail, close-in shots (although it was used some for the Pluto flyby closeups). That's the job of the Ralph telescope on-board the spacecraft.<p>It's a neat picture, but I fear that any subsequent pictures will have less impact on the public, as many laymen will say "Meh, saw that the other day on <insert_news_site>. Old news".<p>I'm really looking forward to the spectacular shots we will get from the close-in imager. New Horizons will be MUCH closer to this object than it was Pluto, so it should really get some fantastic shots of the surface features.<p>For comparison, just check out the wikipedia pages. They show a pretty solid contrast of the capabilities/uses of the two devices:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Reconnaissance_Imager" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Reconnaissance_Imag...</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_(New_Horizons)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_(New_Horizons)</a>
"The team says that the two spheres likely joined as early as 99 percent of the way back to the formation of the solar system, colliding no faster than two cars in a fender-bender."<p>Welded together by gravity, i'm really in awe seeing the, by far, weakest power so lovely at work.
"hi-res" is relative - this is still about 5 times the feature size that was actually captured by the LORRI camera. Going to have to wait at least a few days for the glorious 30m/pixel version.
Here's a link to the press conference slides: <a href="http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Press-Conferences/index.php?page=2019-01-02" rel="nofollow">http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Press-Conferences/index....</a>
Whenever I see these updates, I am reminded of the three body problem trilogy and its contemplations on space exploration (the parts I enjoyed the most).<p>Then I get sad because things just take so incredibly long on a stellar scale, and a human life is so short.
That is amazing. It reminds me of a snowman or two snowballs frozen together, except it's red not white.<p>As seen in the combined image.
<a href="http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/pics800wide/MU69_image_v1%20copy.png" rel="nofollow">http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/pics800wid...</a>
I personally find it amusing and interesting that the physical object, Ultima Thule, looks similar to the Virtual Game logo "Ultima"<p><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Ultima_Online_-_The_Second_Age_Coverart.png" rel="nofollow">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Ultima_Online...</a>
<i>The new images — taken from as close as 17,000 miles (27,000 kilometers) on approach — revealed Ultima Thule as a "contact binary," consisting of two connected spheres.</i><p>Are these common in the asteroid belt or as smaller moons of the outer planets?
I highly recommend reading the book Chasing New Horizons by Alan Stern[0]. It is a great insight into years of work it takes to get a mission like New Horizons going. It is a very well written book and I could not put it down until finished.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-New-Horizons-Inside-Mission/dp/1250098963/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546475775&sr=8-1&keywords=alan+stern+-+chasing+new+horizons" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-New-Horizons-Inside-Mission/d...</a>
Can't help to mention that several round stones stacked in balance is so artificial that is an 'universal' sign to mark the path in wild remote areas. A typical I was here sign.
Um, is that BB-8?<p>Mimas (and Iaepetus too) really looks like the Death Star and now this thing looks like BB-8.<p>Ultima Thule-BB-8 comparison: <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dv7psG3VYAA8jqa.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dv7psG3VYAA8jqa.jpg</a><p>Mimas-Death Star comparison: <a href="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/575/1*nUxm5MD_2xO5Y9LorrV8FQ.jpeg" rel="nofollow">https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/575/1*nUxm5MD_2xO5Y9Lorr...</a><p>Iaepetus-Death Star comparison: <a href="https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/80/750x445/829007.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/80/750x445/8290...</a>
What an astounding feat!<p>I remember reading they were going to aim for 2000 miles from Ultima Thule, was the closest approach revised to 18,000 miles?
Can a human jump off of Ultima Thule?<p><a href="https://xkcd.com/681_large/" rel="nofollow">https://xkcd.com/681_large/</a>