NASA's New Horizons Probe 'Phones Home' in Landmark Mission to Ultima Thule

NASA's New Horizons Explorer successfully made "Fond Home" after the journey of the world, discovered by mankind, on Tuesday, a frozen rock on the edge of the Solar System, which scientists hope is to reveal the secrets of its creation. Will do

The nuclear-powered space probe has traveled 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km), which is to arrive within 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of Ultima Thule, which is clearly peanut-shaped, 20-mile Long (32-km long) space rock. The unknown heart of the Kuiper belt. Belt is a ring of snowy celestial objects just outside of Neptune's orbit.

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The engineers of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland expressed happiness when the first sign of the space shuttle came from National Aeronautics and Space Agency's Deep Space Network at 10:28 AM EST (1528 GMT).

"We have a healthy spacecraft," Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman announced.

NASA said that the space shuttle will bring more detailed images and data than the Thule in the coming days.

Launched in January 2006, New Horizons began its 4 billion mile journey toward the side of the solar system to study dwarf planets Pluto and its five moons.

New Horizons Chief Investigator Alan Stern said at a news conference at the Johnson Hopkins facility in Laurel, Maryland, "Last night, the United States spaceship New Horizons discovered the most far away in the history of mankind, and such brilliantly Done from. "

An image of thule, sent overnight and barely more detailed than the previous images, is dark to the mystery that whether thumbs are shaped like a perennial peanut or in reality the two rocks are orbiting each other, "their The reason for the proximity was blurred together, "said Stern.

During the Fly-by 2015, the investigation found that Pluto was slightly larger than before. In March, it found a methane dune on the surface of the snowy dwarf planet.

Now for the second mission in the Kuiper belt, for the second mission to explore clues about the formation of the New Horizons solar system, beyond 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) of Pluto, the study of the environment and the make-up of the area of Ultima Thule will be studied. . Planets

According to NASA, when investigations were started in this regard, scientists did not discover the Ultima Thule. In 2014, astronomers found Thule using the Hubble Space Telescope and the following year it was chosen for the extended mission of New Horizon.

Since the probe flies over 2,200 miles (3,540 km) from the surface of the thull, scientists hope that it will detect the chemical composition of its environment and the terrain that NASA says is the most remote observation of a body.

Stern told reporters on Monday, "We are expanding the capabilities of this space shuttle and by tomorrow we will know how we did it." "There is no second chance for New Horizons."

While the mission signals the farthest encounter of any object within our solar system, a pair of deep space investigations launched in NASA's Voyager 1 and 2, 1977, more distance on a mission to survey extrasolar bodies Has reached. Both tests are still operational