2.8 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 486958 Arrokoth | 6/8 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/486958_Arrokoth | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:09:12.451441+00:00 | kb-cron |
Arrokoth was discovered on 26 June 2014 using the Hubble Space Telescope during a preliminary survey to find a suitable Kuiper belt object for the New Horizons spacecraft to fly by. Scientists of the New Horizons team were searching for an object in the Kuiper belt that the spacecraft could study after Pluto, and their next target had to be reachable on New Horizons's remaining fuel. Using large ground-based telescopes on Earth, researchers began looking in 2011 for candidate objects and searched multiple times per year for several years. However, none of the objects found were reachable by the New Horizons spacecraft and most Kuiper belt objects that may be suitable were just too distant and faint to be seen through Earth's atmosphere. In order to find these fainter Kuiper belt objects, the New Horizons team initiated a search for suitable targets with the Hubble Space Telescope on 16 June 2014. Arrokoth was first imaged by Hubble on 26 June 2014, 10 days after the New Horizons team began their search for potential targets. While digitally processing images from Hubble, Arrokoth was identified by astronomer Marc Buie, member of the New Horizons team. Buie reported his finding to the search team for subsequent analysis and confirmation. Arrokoth was the second object found during the search, after 2014 MT69. Three more candidate targets were later discovered with Hubble, though follow-up astrometric observations eventually ruled them out. Of the five potential targets found with Hubble, Arrokoth was deemed to be the most feasible target for the spacecraft as the flyby trajectory required the least amount of fuel compared to that for 2014 PN70, the second most feasible target for New Horizons. On 28 August 2015, Arrokoth was officially selected by NASA as a flyby target for the New Horizons spacecraft. Arrokoth is too small and distant for its shape to be observed directly from Earth, but scientists were able to take advantage of an astronomical event called a stellar occultation, in which the object passes in front of a star from the vantage point of Earth. Since the occultation event is only visible from certain parts of the Earth, the New Horizons team combined data from Hubble and the European Space Agency's Gaia space observatory to figure out exactly when and where on Earth's surface Arrokoth would cast a shadow. They determined that occultations would occur on 3 June, 10 July, and 17 July in 2017, and set off for places around the world where they could see Arrokoth cover up a different star on each of these dates. Based on this string of three occultations, scientists were able to trace out the object's shape.
=== 2017 occultations ===