NASA engineers had quite a New Years celebration in 2019 when New Horizons successfully executed a flyby of a tiny object named 2014 MU69 while moving at 32,000 miles per hour.
The planetesimal 2014 MU69 is better known by it’s nickname Ultima Thule, and it’s located way out past Pluto in a region of the Solar System called the Kuiper Belt.
Here’s a link to a video covering the achievement as well as what it has to do with the rock band Queen!
NASA Photographs Most Distant Space Object Ever Reached (CNN, YouTube)
The video explains how Brian May, former lead guitarist for Queen, is an astrophysicist and a team member on the New Horizons Mission.
He wrote and performed this new song entitled New Horizons to celebrate the flyby on New Years day.
NASA Video (YouTube Channel)
NASA (Official Website)
Some scientists may be referred to as “rock stars” from time to time, but it’s seldom literal. It’s also fairly rare for an astrophysicist to be mentioned in Rolling Stone.
Hear Queen Guitarist Brian May’s New Anthem to Space Travel (Kory Grow, Rolling Stone)
Brian May also created a 3D stereoscopic image of Ultima Thule that was released in a NASA news conference.
SciNews (YouTube Channel)
SciNews (Official Website)
Scientists Show Off Space Snowman, Ultima Thule, in 3D (Marcia Dunn, Associated Press)
You can find out more about New Horizons’ flyby of Ultima Thule in these articles.
With Ultima Thule Flyby, NASA Probe Helps Unlock Secrets of Planetary Formation (Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com)
NASA’s New Horizons Just Made the Most Distant Flyby in Space History. So, What’s Next? (Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com)
Finally, New Horizons’ First Photos of Ultima Thule (Robbie Gonzalez, Wired)
Most news stories about Ultima Thule mentioned that it’s the furthest object that’s been photographed. However, New Horizons isn’t the spacecraft that’s the furthest away.
That honor belongs to the twin Voyager spacecraft. In fact, months before New Horizon’s encounter with Ultima Thule, Voyager 2 joined Voyager 1 in interstellar space. Here are a couple of stories abou that feat.
NASA’s Voyager 2 Probe Enters Interstellar Space (NASA/JPL)
What’s Next for NASA’s Voyager 2 in Interstellar Space? (Meghan Bartels, Space.com)
Many stories about the Voyagers mention that they both carry special golden records. Here’s a link to a video that explains how the records were designed to communicate with any aliens that might happen upon them in the distant future.
40 Years Ago, NASA Sent a Message to Aliens — Here’s What It Says (Business Insider, YouTube)
Believe it or not, there’s even a tie-in with rock ‘n’ roll here, too. The cool scientists that designed the record included a recording of Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode!
Voyager, What’s on the Golden Record: Music From Earth (NASA/JPL)
Here’s a video from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame of Chuck Berry performing it with Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (YouTube Channel)
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Official Website)
There was a lot of news about space rocks closer to home around that time as well. That’s because, not just one, but two spacecraft reached milestones in their respective journeys to explore two asteroids.
The biggest news was that NASA’s OSIRIS-REx entered orbit around asteroid 101955 Bennu on New Years Eve. Among other things, this set records for the smallest body ever orbited by a spacecraft and the closest orbit of a planetary body by any spacecraft.
Here’s a video and press release about this milestone that was posted by the OSIRIS-REx Mission on December 31st.
OSIRIS-REx Mission (NASA, YouTube Channel)
OSIRIS-REx Mission (NASA, Official Website)
OSIRIS-REx entered orbit around Bennu on 31 December 2018 (Lonnie Shekhtman, Osiris-Rex Mission)
There are many reasons that Bennu is an interesting object, but one of its biggest claims to fame is that it is a “potentially hazardous object” that is listed on the Sentry Risk Table with the second-highest cumulative rating on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale. The only one with a higher rating is asteroid (29075) 1950 DA (JPL/NASA) (Wikipedia). Neither of these asteroids are very likely to hit Earth, but they are the most likely (that we know of, so far).
That holiday season also brought continuing coverage of Japan’s nail-biting Hayabusa2 Mission to asteroid 162173 Ryugu (Wikipedia). The mission is scheduled to collect a sample of Ryugu and return it to Earth in December 2020.
Here’s a fun bit of trivia. Last summer Brian May also created a 3D stereoscopic image of Ryugu using a picture captured by Hayabusa2.
Queen’s Brian May Will Rock You with This Stereo Image of Asteroid Ryugu (Meghan Bartels, Space.com)
Finally, closer to Earth, the most recent development of the season is that China successfully landed the Chang’e 4 rover on the far side of the Moon.
Here’s a link to a video that explains why this is a big deal.
China Is The First To Land On The Dark Side Of The Moon (Tech Insider, YouTube)
Of course, almost every story takes advantage of the teachable moment to clarify that it should be called the “far side” rather than “dark side” of the Moon, because it isn’t dark there. There are also inevitable references to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. In fact, when I went searching on YouTube for videos about China’s landing, it served up this trippy 360° video.
I’m sort of sad that it happens to be Pink Floyd’s album that’s getting a bit of play over this, because the more relevant rock music about the Moon is probably David Bowie’s Space Oddity. Notably, astronaut Chris Hadfield paid homage to this by making a music video of it while living on the International Space Station (ISS).
NOVA’s Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers (YouTube Channel)
NOVA’s Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers (Official Website)
In addition, here’s an fantastic 360° video that frames a trip to the Moon as a tribute to David Bowie.
NPR’s Skunk Bear (YouTube Channel)
NPR’s Skunk Bear (Official Website)
So that’s a wrap up of that wild holiday season in space exploration, and I hope you enjoyed the detours into rock ‘n’ roll, too.
Space Rocks & Happy New Year!
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