Discovery of Arrokoth
Descubrimiento de Arrokoth
- Date
- 26 de junio de 2014 · confidence high
- Place
- Boulder, Colorado, United States
- Credited to
- Marc W. Buie (New Horizons mission team, using the Hubble Space Telescope)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The New Horizons mission team, led by astronomer Marc Buie, discovered Arrokoth (then 2014 MU69) while processing Hubble Space Telescope images, in an urgent search for a second Kuiper belt target for the probe after its Pluto flyby.
The name 'Arrokoth' (meaning 'sky' in the Powhatan language) replaced the provisional nickname 'Ultima Thule' in 2019, which was withdrawn due to unwanted historical connotations.
What it led to
- selection as the second target of the New Horizons mission
- the New Horizons flyby on 1 January 2019, the farthest object ever visited by a spacecraft
- direct knowledge of a primordial, pristine Kuiper belt object