{"id":1519,"date":"2018-12-31T07:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=1519"},"modified":"2018-12-31T07:21:28","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:21:28","slug":"about-tomorrows-new-horizon-flyby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/31\/about-tomorrows-new-horizon-flyby\/","title":{"rendered":"Like finding a firefly in a forest fire: The ‘New Horizon’ Flyby"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In just a few hours, on New Year’s Day, the New Horizons spacecraft will buzz past “Ultima Thule,” a Kuiper Belt Object<\/a>; a relic of the early solar system, and the most distant object ever visited by human craft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post isn’t actually about the flyby — there’s tons of information already available about that. For example: From NASA<\/a>; and Wikipedia<\/a>; and Johns Hopkins University<\/a> ; and many other sources<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, this is about a fascinating backstory of how Ultima Thule came to be found: A challenge much worse than finding the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was more like finding a firefly in a forest fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When scientists went looking for a post-Pluto target for New Horizons, they had to look through the plane of the galaxy<\/em>. Here’s one of their early search images, below — imagine trying to find an unknown, faint dot somewhere in this visual clutter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The full story of how they found Ultima Thule is geeky, but quite interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NASA page, A World Beyond Pluto: Finding a New Target for New Horizons<\/a> is a great place to start, followed by planetary astronomer Alex Parkers’ twitter thread<\/a> on the subject (he became involved with New Horizons in 2011).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good, science-nerd reading!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Permalink: https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=1519<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Want to ask Fred a question? Have a comment? Click here!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want free notification of new content like this? Click here<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In just a few hours, on New Year’s Day, the New Horizons spacecraft will buzz past “Ultima Thule,” a Kuiper Belt Object; a relic of the early solar system, and the most distant object ever visited by human craft. This post isn’t actually about the flyby — there’s tons of information already available about that….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-tech"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-ov","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3828,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/27\/can-touching-an-lcd-screen-cause-damage\/","url_meta":{"origin":1519,"position":0},"title":"“Can touching an LCD screen cause damage?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-11-27","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Ian Sandoval) Touching with what, and how hard? Even on screens that aren't meant to be touched (e.g. not a touchscreen!) a simple tap or swipe with a fingertip, where the screen is not visibly deformed, won't do any harm except maybe to leave behind a little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/screen-touch.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3723,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/07\/im-a-producer-on-my-way-to-college-how-can-i-secure-my-laptop-so-it-doesnt-get-stolen-without-screwing-holes-into-my-desk\/","url_meta":{"origin":1519,"position":1},"title":"“I\u2019m a producer on my way to college. 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But opaque tape alone would do that; a camera can't see through an opaque object, period. 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There's nothing special about rainbow colors --- often listed as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. 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