NASA’s New Horizons mission gets a brand-new name “Arrokoth”

The International Astronomical Union and Minor Planets Center, the global body for naming Kuiper Belt objects, has finally given a name for the most distant world ever explored by a space mission. It is called Arrokoth. NASA launched the New Horizons mission in January 2006. After crossing by Pluto in 2015, in 2019 it flew by ..

Topics: Astronomical objects • Astronomy • Charon • Extraterrestrial water • Kuiper belt • New Horizons • Planet • Planetary science • Pluto • Solar System • Space exploration

NASA renames faraway ice world Ultima Thule to ‘Arrokoth’

Ultima Thule, the farthest cosmic body ever visited by a spacecraft, has been renamed Arrokoth, or “sky” in the Native American Powhatan language, following a backlash over the previous name’s Nazi connotations. The icy rock, which orbits in the dark and frigid Kuiper Belt about a billion miles beyond Pluto, was surveyed by the NASA spaceship ..

Topics: Kuiper belt • Local Interstellar Cloud • New Horizons • Pluto • Spacecraft • Thule • Ultima Thule

The researchers at NASA finds evidence of water, organics on Kuiper Belt object ‘Ultima Thule’

The researchers at NASA space agency has found evidence for a unique mixture of methanol, water ice, and organic molecules on the surface of Ultima Thule, which is located in the Kuiper Belt – beyond the orbit of Neptune. The mixture is very different from most icy objects explored previously by spacecraft. Ultima Thule (also ..

Topics: Astronomical objects • Kuiper belt • Local Interstellar Cloud • Neptune • New Horizons • Solar System • Thule • Ultima • Ultima Thule