NASA Says Astronauts Will See Star Wars: The Last Jedi in Space

Photo An artist s rendering shows a flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft of 2014 MU69 a distant object in the solar system s Kuiper belt. MU69 is no more than 20 miles wide and it s possible scientists say it has an even smaller moon. Credit NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI In just over a year a NASA spacecraft will visit a tiny world at the edge of the solar system. Now that tiny object appears to have an even tinier moon scientists announced on Tuesday.The object known as 2014 MU69 is small no more than 20 miles wide but planetary scientists hope that it will turn out to be an ancient and pristine fragment from the earliest days of the solar system.The moon if it exists might be about three miles wide circling at a distance of about 120 miles from MU69 completing an orbit every two to four weeks estimated Marc W. Buie an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder Colo.He cautioned that the findings were tentative. The story could change next week he said.Dr. Buie and others working on NASA s New Horizons mission provided an update on Tuesday at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union meeting here. Advertisement Continue reading the main story New Horizons flew past Pluto two years ago sending back spectacular views that revealed a world with soaring mountains of ice smooth plains and maybe even an subsurface ocean of liquid water. Continue reading the main story 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.Scroll down for video 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) WHAT IS MU69? Ancient object MU69 discovered in 2014 is more than 4 billion miles (6.5 billion km) from Earth.It orbits the sun in the Kuiper Belt a ring of icy comets planet fragments and dwarf stars a billion miles (1.6 billion km) beyond Pluto.MU69 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. 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. RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next Genetically modified WINE is coming to a bar near you:... The experiment that could save Earth: NASA reveals... The ancient Chinese funeral procession entombed for 2 400... Waymo launching ground breaking ride-hailing service in... Share this article Share 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 systemMU69 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. Get daily updates directly to your inbox SubscribeThank you for subscribing!Could not subscribe try again laterInvalid EmailNASA is set to hold a special announcement on Thursday evening to discuss the latest findings of its planet-hunting Kepler space telescope. The space agency hasn t let anything slip about what it s going to reveal - only that it has been working with Google to survey alien worlds. The discovery was made by researchers using machine learning from Google. Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence and demonstrates new ways of analysing Kepler data it said in a brief press statement . Read More Elon Musk takes swipe at Flat Earth conspiracy theorists with one obvious question NASA s Kepler Space Telescope has gazed at more than 150 000 stars and continues to transmit back data that leads to important discoveries of celestial objects in our galaxy including first-time observations of planets outside our solar system. (Image: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel) Kepler has made many discoveries including one in the summer of 10 Earth-like planets that could support alien life . The space telescope has spent years combing the galaxies looking for evidence of extra-terrestrial life. It hunts for planets by detecting the minuscule drop in a star s brightness that occurs when a planet crosses in front of it called a transit. So far its has identified 4 034 planet candidates 2 335 of which have been verified as exoplanets. Of those 30 are similar in size to Earth and orbiting in their star s habitable zone. Read More Asgardia space nation launches first satellite as it looks to slip the surly bonds of Earth What has Kepler discovered? (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech) When Kepler launched in March 2009 scientists didn t know how common planets were beyond our solar system. Thanks to Kepler s treasure trove of discoveries astronomers now believe there may be at least one planet orbiting every star in the sky. The hosts of Thursday s announcement will be a panel of experts including: Paul Hertz Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington Christopher Shallue senior software engineer at Google AI in Mountain View California Andrew Vanderburg astronomer and NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas Austin Jessie Dotson Kepler project scientist at NASA s Ames Research Center in California s Silicon Valley As usual there will be a question-and-answer session following the main announcement. Members of the public will be able to submit questions through Twitter by using the hashtag #askNASA.