Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft could uncover an ancient moon during its next mission, set to be the ‘farthest exploration in the history of mankind’.
Experts say they are unsure exactly how many rocks they will find when they close in on the probe’s latest target, known as 2014 MU69.
The object, which orbits the sun a billion miles (1.6 billion km) beyond Pluto, could in fact be two rocks orbiting each other, and the pair may host an orbiting moon.
Nasa is keen to study MU69 because it formed as part of the early solar system, and could help us understand how stars and planets are born.
Nasa says it is unsure how many rocks it will find its New Horizons probe (top right) closes in on it latest target, known as 2014 MU69. The object could in fact be two rocks orbiting each other, and the pair may host a small moon (artist’s impression)
MU69 sits in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy comets, planet fragments and dwarf stars 4.1 billion miles (6.5 billion km) from Earth.
Objects at this distance are extremely difficult to study with telescopes, meaning much about MU69 remains a mystery.
Despite this, Nasa’s New Horizons team has spent months gathering data on the object in preparation for New Horizons’ flyby in January 2019.
‘We really won’t know what MU69 looks like until we fly past it, or even gain a full understanding of it until after the encounter,’ said New Horizons team member Dr Marc Buie, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
‘But even from afar, the more we examine it, the more interesting and amazing this little world becomes.’
Earlier this year, Nasa observations of MU69 showed it might be either peanut-shaped or even two objects orbiting one another.
But new data collected by the Horizons team hints the ancient object might have company in the shape of a tiny, orbiting moon.
The data were gathered in July, when the team studied a narrow shadow cast by MU69 as it passed in front of a star – an event known as an occultation.
MU69 orbits the sun 4.1 billion miles (6.5 billion km) from Earth. At this distance, observations from Earth (top line) struggle to decipher whether the object is two separate rocks (bottom left), a ‘contact binary’ (bottom centre), or a potato-shaped comet or asteroid (bottom right)
Earlier this year, Nasa observations of MU69 showed it might be either peanut-shaped (artist’s impression) or even two objects orbiting one another. New data collected by the Horizons team hint the ancient object might have company in the shape of a tiny, orbiting moon
PUBLIC POLL TO NICKNAME MU69
Nasa is seeking suggestions from the public to nickname MU69 before New Horizons arrives at the object in 2019.
While the ballot includes a number of legitimate options, including Mjölnir (Thor’s hammer), Camalor (fictional city in the Kuiper Belt), and Pluck & Persistence (traits of New Horizons), Twitter users have shared a slew of absurd suggestions.
Popular posts have ranged from ‘Donald Trump’s heart’, to countless space-themed spin-offs of the Boaty McBoatface debacle, to ‘Dave’.
Nasa says it plans to choose a formal name once the true nature of the object is uncovered by New Horizons.
Nasa is seeking suggestions from the public to nickname MU69 before New Horizons arrives at the object in 2019. Popular posts included countless space-themed spin-offs of the Boaty McBoatface debacle
The events are frequently used by astronomers to estimate the size, shape and orbit of very distant objects in space.
Experts at Nasa’s airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) detected a short drop in the star’s light during an MU69 occultation.
Dr Buie said further analysis of that data, including syncing it with MU69 orbit estimates, suggests the ‘blip’ Sofia detected could be another object around MU69.
New Horizons (trajectory pictured in yellow) made history in 2015 when it performed the first ever fly-by of Pluto. The probe has since sailed beyond the icy dwarf planet to the outer reaches of the solar system, where it will explore ancient objects
Nasa scientists tracked MU69 as it passed in front of a star – an event known as an occultation. The coloured lines in this image mark the path of the star as seen from different telescopes on each day, while the blank spaces indicate the few seconds when MU69 blocked the starlight
‘A binary with a smaller moon might also help explain the shifts we see in the position of MU69 during these various occultations,’ Dr Buie said.
‘It’s all very suggestive, but another step in our work to get a clear picture of MU69 before New Horizons flies by, just over a year from now.’
New Horizons made history in 2015 when it performed the first ever fly-by of Pluto.
MU69, discovered in 2014, appears to be no more than 20 miles (30 km) long, or, if a ‘binary’ pair of rocks (artist’s impression), each about 9-12 miles (15-20 km) in diameter
The probe has since sailed beyond the icy dwarf planet to the outer reaches of the solar system, where it will explore ancient objects.
MU69, discovered in 2014, appears to be no more than 20 miles (30 km) long, or, if a ‘binary’ pair of rocks, each about 9-12 miles (15-20 km) in diameter.
‘Like other objects in the Kuiper Belt, MU69 offers a close-up look at the remnants of the ancient planet-building process, small worlds that hold critical clues to the formation of the outer solar system,’ Nasa said.
NEW HORIZONS’ NEXT MISSION
The spacecraft that gave us the first close-up views of Pluto now has a much smaller object in its sights.
New Horizons is now track to fly past a recently discovered, less than 30-mile-wide object out on the solar system frontier.
The close encounter with what’s known as 2014 MU69 would occur in 2019. It orbits nearly 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto.
Nasa and the New Horizons team chose 2014 MU69 in August as New Horizons’ next potential target, thus the nickname PT-1. Like Pluto, MU69 orbits the sun in the frozen, twilight zone known as the Kuiper Belt.
This illustration provided by NASA shows the New Horizons spacecraft. The probe whipped past Pluto in 2015 and is headed to 2014 MU69 for an attempted 2019 flyby of the tiny, icy world on the edge of the solar system
MU69 is thought to be 10 times larger and 1,000 times more massive than average comets, including the one being orbited right now by Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft.
On the other end, MU69 is barely 1 percent the size of Pluto and perhaps one-ten-thousandth the mass of the dwarf planet. So the new target is a good middle ground, according to scientists.
The spacecraft was recently approved for its extended mission, allowing it to continue on its path toward the object deeper in the Kuiper Belt.
It’s expected that New Horizons will make its approach to the ancient object on January 1, 2019.