Exploring the frozen fringes of solar system

Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft pulled off the most distant exploration of another world yesterday, skimming past a tiny, icy object 6.4 billion kilometres from Earth that looks to be shaped like a bowling pin.

Flight controllers in Maryland declared success 10 hours after the highrisk encounter at the mysterious body known as Ultima Thule on the frozen fringes of our solar system, an astounding 1.6 billion kilometres beyond Pluto.

‘‘I don’t know about all of you, but I’m really liking this 2019 thing so far,’’ lead scientist Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute said to applause. ‘‘I’m here to tell you that last night, overnight, the United States spacecraft New Horizons conducted the farthest exploration in the history of humankind, and did so spectacularly.’’

The close , and 3 years after New Horizons’ unprecedented swing past Pluto.

For Ultima Thule — which wasn’t even known when New Horizons departed Earth in 2006 – the endeavour was more difficult. The spacecraft zoomed within 3500km of it, more than three times closer than the Pluto flyby.

Operating on autopilot, New Horizons was out of radio contact with controllers at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory from late Monday afternoon until late Tuesday morning (all US time). Scientists wanted the spacecraft staring down Ultima Thule and collecting data, not turning toward Earth to phone home.

Mission operations manager Alice Bowman said she was more nervous this time than she was with Pluto in 2015 because of the challenges and distance, so vast that messages take more than six hours, one way, to cross the 6.4 billion kilometres. When a solid radio link finally was acquired and team members reported that their spacecraft systems were green, or good, she declared with relief: ‘‘We have a healthy spacecraft.’’ Later, she added to more applause: ‘‘We did it again.’’

Cheers erupted in the control center and in a nearby auditorium, where hundreds more gathered to await word.

AP New Horizons project scientist Hal Weaver, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory speaks about new data received from the New Horizons spacecraft during a press conference after the team received confirmation from the spacecraft that it has completed a flyby of Ultima Thule.