NASA rang in the New Year on Tuesday with a historic flyby of the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever explored by humankind — a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule — in the hopes of learning more about how planets took shape. Stern said Ultima Thule is unique because it is a relic from the early days of the solar system and could provide answers about the origins of other planets. Stern said the goal is to take images of Ultima that are three times the resolution the team had for Pluto. – Frontier of planetary science –Ultima Thule is named for a mythical, far-northern island in medieval literature and cartography, according to NASA. “We finally have reached the outskirts of the solar system, these things that have been there since the beginning and have hardly changed — we think.

Source: Punch January 01, 2019 09:11 UTC