Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

New Horizons Takes Closest Image Ever of a Kuiper Belt Object

New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) took this image on Nov. 2, 2015 of a 90-mile (150-kilometer)-wide ancient Kuiper Belt Object named 1994 JR1, moving against a background of stars. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) took this image on Nov. 2, 2015 of a 90-mile (150-kilometer)-wide ancient Kuiper Belt Object named 1994 JR1, moving against a background of stars. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

The New Horizons spacecraft is already 209,437,000 km (130,138,000 miles) past Pluto (as of Dec. 4, 2015), making it 5,226,950,000 km (3,247,880,000 miles) from Earth. So, yes, it’s way out there. Recently, it took the closest images ever of a distant Kuiper Belt object, setting a record by a factor of at least 15, according to NASA. The team says this image demonstrates the spacecraft’s ability to observe numerous similar bodies over the next several years.
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