New Horizons
NASA spacecraft launched in 2006
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We include updates on 486958 Arrokoth, Alan Stern, 132524 APL, Marc Buie, Tvashtar Paterae, Mongoose-V, 15810 Arawn, Star 48, Mark R. Showalter, Daniel Sarokon, Alice Bowman, Wright Mons, Cathy Olkin, Lisa Hardaway, Hal A. Weaver, Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter ... and more.
| 2025 | NASA announced that New Horizons will focus on specific heliophysics data, beginning in fiscal year 2025. |
| 2025 | The first map of all Lyman-Alpha emissions in the Milky Way galaxy was published, based on New Horizons observations. |
| April 15 2024 |
15810 Arawn
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) conducted a 1 minute and 4 second observation of Arawn using its NIRCam instrument in Moving Target mode, with published findings expected at a later date.
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| March 6 2024 |
2014 OS393
Minor Planet Center published additional observations by New Horizons KBO Search-Subaru, allowing computation of a more reliable orbit through MPEC 2024-E99.
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| December 2023 | New Horizons had discovered approximately 100 Kuiper Belt Objects and closely examined about 20 of them, capturing details about their shape, rotational period, potential moons, and surface composition. |
| September 2023 | NASA announced that beginning in fiscal year 2025, New Horizons will focus on specific heliophysics data, while remaining available for a potential Kuiper belt flyby until 2028. |
| August 25 2022 |
15810 Arawn
Arawn occulted a star, providing an astronomical observation opportunity.
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| April 11 2022 |
486958 Arrokoth
The names Wenu Lobus (the larger lobe) and Kaan Arcus (the circular arc on Wenu Lobus) were officially approved by the IAU.
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| 2021 |
2014 OS393
Hal Weaver confirmed that the object is a binary system, with two components of similar size located close to each other.
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| 2021 | Mission extension period ends, concluding the planned extended observations of Kuiper Belt objects. |
| September 2 2021 |
486958 Arrokoth
Several key features of Arrokoth were officially named, including Akasa Linea (the bright neck region), Weeyo Lobus (the smaller lobe), and Sky Crater.
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| April 17 2021 | New Horizons reached a distance of 50 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun while remaining fully operational. |
| 2020 |
2014 OS393
Initial observations of the object's binary nature remained inconclusive.
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| May 2020 |
486958 Arrokoth
The International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) formally established a naming theme for all features of Arrokoth, using words for 'sky' from various world languages.
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| May 2020 | New Horizons observed the dwarf planet Haumea from a distance of 63 AU, continuing its extended mission of studying Kuiper Belt objects. |
| April 2020 | New Horizons was used with Earth telescopes to take pictures of nearby stars Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, producing the first demonstrable stellar parallax from over 6.4 billion km apart. |
| 2019 | Awarded the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Division of Planetary Science (DPS) Harold C. Urey Prize, recognizing outstanding achievements in planetary science by early career researchers. |
| 2019 | Singer and her team used New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LoRRI) to demonstrate that small Kuiper Belt Objects (less than one mile in diameter) are rare, providing insights into Solar System formation and evolution models. |
| November 12 2019 |
486958 Arrokoth
Official naming ceremony for Arrokoth held at NASA Headquarters, with permission from Pamunkey Indian Tribe elders, and the naming citation published in a Minor Planet Circular.
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| November 8 2019 |
486958 Arrokoth
The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center accepted the name 'Arrokoth'.
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| January 2019 |
2014 OS393
New Horizons spacecraft passed the Kuiper belt object at a distance of less than 0.1 AU (15 million km, 9.3 million miles), making it the second closest KBO observed by the mission after Arrokoth.
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| January 9 2019 | New Horizons returned to a spin-stabilized mode to prepare for sending the remaining data back to Earth, with a full data download expected to take approximately 20 months. |
| January 2 2019 | Continued transmission of high-priority data from the Arrokoth encounter to Earth. |
| January 1 2019 | New Horizons completed its flyby of Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth (previously nicknamed Ultima Thule). |
| January 1 2019 |
486958 Arrokoth
NASA's New Horizons space probe conducted a flyby of Arrokoth, making it the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System visited by a spacecraft at that time.
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| December 24 2018 | Completion of the official approach phase to Arrokoth. |
| September 2018 |
2011 JY31
New Horizons spacecraft conducted distant observations that revealed 2011 JY31 is a binary trans-Neptunian object, with two components in a tight, mutual orbit.
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| August 2018 | NASA used results from New Horizons' Alice instrument to confirm the existence of a 'hydrogen wall' at the outer edges of the Solar System. |
| August 16 2018 | Official approach phase to Arrokoth began. New Horizons made its first detection of Arrokoth from a distance, observing it at magnitude 20 against a stellar background in the constellation Sagittarius. |
| August 13 2018 | Spacecraft transitioned from spin-stabilized mode to three-axis-stabilized mode in preparation for the Arrokoth encounter. |
| June 5 2018 | New Horizons spacecraft was awakened from hibernation at approximately 00:33 UTC to prepare for the Arrokoth encounter approach phase. |
| April 11 2018 |
Dorothy
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially approved the name 'Dorothy' for the impact crater, naming it after Dorothy Gale from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
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| March 13 2018 |
486958 Arrokoth
NASA selected 'Ultima Thule' as the nickname for the object following a public suggestion process.
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| December 5 2017 | New Horizons took a calibration image of the Wishing Well cluster from 40.9 AU away, breaking the record for the most distant image ever taken by a spacecraft. The spacecraft then imaged two Kuiper belt objects from close distances of 0.50 and 0.34 AU. |
| April 13 2017 | Asteroid 10698 Singer was officially named in her honor, as published by the Minor Planet Center. |
| March 12 2017 |
486958 Arrokoth
Arrokoth was given the permanent minor planet number 486958.
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| October 25 2016 | Last recorded data from the Pluto flyby was received from New Horizons at 21:48 UTC. |
| July 2016 | LORRI camera captured distant images of Quaoar to study its light-scattering properties. |
| July 1 2016 | The New Horizons mission received funding extension through 2021 for further exploration of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), enabling the Kuiper Belt Extended Mission (KEM). |
| April 7 2016 |
15810 Arawn
New Horizons imaged Arawn from a record distance of about 111 million kilometres using the LORRI instrument, allowing scientists to pinpoint its location within 1000 kilometers and calculate its rotation period of approximately 5.47 hours.
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| April 7 2016 | New Horizons re-imaged KBO 15810 Arawn with the LORRI instrument, refining its location and determining its rotational period of 5.47 hours. |
| March 30 2016 | New Horizons reached the halfway point of transmitting the Pluto flyby data, approximately nine months after the initial flyby. |
| 2015 |
2014 OS393
New Horizons probe completed its flyby of Arrokoth and began observations of surrounding Kuiper belt objects.
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| November 4 2015 | Completed the final engine firing to adjust the spacecraft's trajectory for the upcoming Kuiper Belt Object flyby. |
| November 2 2015 |
15810 Arawn
Arawn was imaged by the LORRI instrument aboard New Horizons spacecraft, providing an observation that was 1/15 the distance of previous Kuiper belt object observations outside the Pluto-Charon system.
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| November 2 2015 | New Horizons imaged Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 15810 Arawn using the LORRI instrument, beginning detailed observations of the object. |
| October 22 2015 | New Horizons spacecraft began a series of course adjustment engine firings to prepare for the Arrokoth flyby. |
| August 28 2015 |
2014 OS393
New Horizons team announced the selection of a Kuiper belt object as the next flyby target, eliminating other potential targets.
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| August 28 2015 | NASA selected 486958 Arrokoth (initially known as Ultima Thule) as the flyby target for the New Horizons mission in the Kuiper Belt. |
| July 2015 |
Dorothy
The New Horizons space probe discovered the Dorothy crater during its flyby of the Pluto-Charon system, capturing detailed images of the largest known impact basin on Charon.
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles 15810 Arawn, New Horizons, 2011 JY31, Dorothy (Charonian crater), 2014 OS393, 486958 Arrokoth & Kelsi Singer, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.