NEW YEAR, NEW SUNSPOT: A new sunspot is emerging in the sun's northern hemisphere, breaking a string of 16 spotless days at the end of 2018. The unnumbered spot's magnetic polarity identifies it as a member of old Solar Cycle 24. Typical of Solar Minimum sunspots, it does not appear to pose a threat for strong solar flares. Free: Aurora Alerts
GOOD NEWS FROM NEW HORIZONS: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is in good condition after successfully flying by Ultima Thule during the early hours of Jan 1st. Scientists and mission controllers delivered the good news at a jubilant press briefing this morning. New Horizons is now beaming its data to Earth across a gulf of 4 billion miles. The first high-resolution images are expected to be released on Jan. 2nd.
Meanwhile, the New Horizons team has already received a few low-resolution images of Ultima Thule, taken during the spacecraft's approach phase. They reveal it to have a bowling pin shape:
At the moment, it's impossible to say whether the two lobes of the bowling pin are actually connected. If not, Ultima Thule could be a binary object--an exciting possibility that will be resolved when better images are released tomorrow.
One mystery might already be solved. As New Horizons was approaching Ultima Thule, mission scientists noticed that Ultima Thule's brightness was strangely constant. It should have varied, up and down, as the irregular object rotated in the meagre sunlight of the Kuiper Belt. Early images taken by the LORRI camera onboard New Horizons suggest an explanation: The spin axis of Ultima Thule appears to be pointed almost directly at the approaching spacecraft. As Ultima Thule spins, its cross-section as seen by New Horizons is nearly constant. What are the odds?
More unlikely results may be in the offing. Stay tuned for the release of high-res images on Jan. 2nd.
THIS IS TOO COOL: You can watch NASA communicate with New Horizons on JPL's Deep Space Network NOW website.
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
GIFTS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are about to kick off a new year of cosmic ray balloon launches, continuing a 5-year campaign to monitor increasing levels of radiation in Earth's atmosphere. You can help. Buy any gift item from the Earth to Sky Store and we'll give you 10% off to celebrate the New Year.
All items in the Earth to Sky Store have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray balloons. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey. All sales support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program and hands-on STEM research.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education