After months ofdeliberation and voting , NASA has announced the prescribed nickname for 2014 MU69 , the space rock that will be visited by New Horizons on January 1 , 2019 . The physical object will be address Ultima Thule , after the mythical island often suck in the extreme North of medieval mapping .
The condition has do to intend a distant place beyond “ the border of the known earth ” , providing a perfect name for the intriguing objective . Ultima Thule ( pronouncedthoo - lee ) will be the uttermost object from the Sun to be examined up close by a human spacecraft .
“ MU69 is humanity ’s next Ultima Thule , ” Alan Stern , New Horizons principal research worker from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder , Colorado , said in astatement . “ Our spacecraft is heading beyond the limits of the known worlds , to what will be this military mission ’s next accomplishment . Since this will be the farthermost geographic expedition of any object in space in history , I care to call our flyby target Ultima , for scant , represent this ultimate exploration by NASA and our squad . ”
Thecampaignto name the object wrap up on December 6 , after more than 115,000 participants from all over the world put onward more than 34,000 names . A total of 37 names reached the ballot for voting and were then evaluated for popularity . Eight names were from the New Horizons squad and the stay 29 from the world . Ultima Thule was nominated by 40 people and circumvent other names like Abeona , Pharos , Pangu , Rubicon , Olympus , Pinnacle , and Tiramisu .
“ We are thankful to those who propose such an interesting and inspirational moniker , ” Mark Showalter , the penis of the New Horizons squad who led the political campaign , add . “ They merit acknowledgment for get the true sprightliness of geographic expedition that New Horizons embodies . ”
While Ultima Thule is a great name , it wo n’t be the prescribed appellative until it is approved by the International Astronomical Union . There arespecific standardsto be honour when it comes to the naming of astronomical objects . The New Horizons squad plan to shape with the Union in 2019 , after the flyby , to find a stately and permanent name for 2014 MU69 .
New Horizons has already been a phenomenal mission , impart us the first detailed flavor atPluto and its moonshine . It is currently over 6 billion km ( about 4 billion land mile ) from Earth , displace at breakneck speed towards Ultima Thule .
