For the New Year, something truly new (in space)

If you haven't heard, tonight (aka New Year's Eve) NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will fly by the Kuiper Belt object that has been named "Ultima Thule".  It'll take a couple of days to send back good pictures of it;  it'll take weeks to get really good pictures of it;  and it will take months to get all the data back from this swift encounter.   But tonight it's happening, billions and billions of kilometers (or miles, if you prefer) from Earth.

And That's Really Cool.


NASA's New Horizons Spies Elongated Target Ultima Thule Ahead of Flyby

(I'd post the picture but it's really not that spectacular yet.)