Phil Fargaze

I`m booked to go, looking forward to it.

The NH headquarters have been a bit quiet since the `pancake and dented walnut` revelation. I suppose all is ok, they must be hanging around because of that slow download.

Amazing new evidence regarding the shape of Ultima Thule! Latest release

New higher res image released today! See here

With reference to the live science update from the New Horizons team here on Thursday 3rd, Chris Lintott (BBC Sky at Night) asked the same question regarding the fact that two spherical objects have come together but have not formed a larger spherical object. The response is supplied by Mark Showalter (SETI Institute) at roughly 44:30 minutes. Interestingly he points towards the fact that there could be a moon or moons that have carried off the angular momentum of the two parts of Ultima Thule which enabled it to join together slowly. So far there hasn't been any moons spotted yet but he is waiting to investigate further images as and when they get downloaded. Looking forward to The Sky at Night which is broadcast on 13th January BBC4 22:40 entitled `Beyond Pluto` and takes a look at the latest from the New Horizons mission.

Good graphic here

What an amazing object! We are most likely seeing formation in progress, in time it may coalesce with more fragments until it gets to a large enough mass to pull it into a more spherical shape. Alan Stern did comment that he would be interested to see if there are any smaller chunks of material in orbit about the object as the resolution of images improve.

As far as I am certain there is a press briefing by some of the NH team regarding latest science results at 7pm UK time today. Hopefully they might have some new images to show.

Fingers still crossed!

Fantastic result. Awesome achievement!

As far as I know, they are due to receive the `phone home` signal from the probe at about 15:30 UK time. Amazing to think that at this very moment that signal is zooming it`s way across the Solar System on it`s way back to Earth.

Todays live update by some of the team on youtube here. Getting excited now!

I was looking at the MU69 picture of the day page here and the NH team remind us of the constraints regarding sending images across such a large distance. So if I understand correctly it is going to be two days before we get the close up images of when Ultima Thule is revealed to us. Anyway, what is always a joy to watch is the extreme tension in the control room give way to emotional celebration once they get confirmation that the mission has succeeded.

Latest update. FLO retweeted news from Alan Stern about a new mission website design see here looking good with rendezvous count down To start with I was half expecting to do an `all nighter` and scrape myself off the floor after the New Years Eve party to watch the fly past coverage at 5 in the morning, but of course, the time delay puts it just right for breakfast viewing. Can`t wait, New Horizons has been an amazing mission, with still more to deliver.

When I was at the Herstmonceux Festival of Astronomy in Sussex UK, the QRZ Amateur Radio Group of East Suusex are based there and they tried to contact the ISS whilst we were watching on. However the guy explained that due to a possibly large amount of other people trying to get in touch, they would be lucky to get a response. I don`t know anything about amateur radio but it was very interesting. They did get in contact with a Japanese fisherman somewhere in the Pacific Ocean though!

Funnily enough, whilst your adventure involved escaping Suffolk my adventure began by leaving London for Suffolk. Driven by the expectation of a clear Friday morning in Suffolk I should have paid more attention to the forecast, although at this time of year a forecast can be more like a random guess. As you might well know, you made the right decision, the cloud cover was 100% in Suffolk. By Friday afternoon I was taking a stroll around Southwold, in glorious sunshine!!!