Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

New Horizons at Ultima Thule

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 29, 2018 is “New Horizons at Ultima Thule,” an image. It is credited to Illustration Credit: Carlos Hernandez for NASA , Johns Hopkins Univ./APL , Southwest Research Institute. The original explanation runs about 136 words.

New Horizons at Ultima Thule
Credit: Illustration Credit: Carlos Hernandez for NASA , Johns Hopkins Univ./APL , Southwest Research Institute Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“When we celebrate the start of 2019, on January 1 the New Horizons spacecraft will fly by Ultima Thule . 5 billion kilometers from the Sun, the nickname Ultima Thule (catalog designation 2014 MU69) fittingly means “beyond the known world”.”

— APOD editors, December 29, 2018

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
December 29, 2018
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: Illustration Credit: Carlos Hernandez for NASA , Johns Hopkins Univ./APL , Southwest Research Institute
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 136 words

All of December 2018 → · 2018 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

The Sun

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: December 29 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.