Hubble image archive
Kuiper Belt Object 1110113Y
A Kuiper Belt object (KBO) that is potentially reachable by NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons probe is visible in multiple exposures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble tracked the KBO (named 1110113Y or "PT1") moving against the crowded background field of stars in the c...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2014
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2014-47-3447-image
A Kuiper Belt object (KBO) that is potentially reachable by NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons probe is visible in multiple exposures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble tracked the KBO (named 1110113Y or "PT1") moving against the crowded background field of stars in the constellation Sagittarius. The object is no bigger than 19 to 28 miles across, and it is a deep-freeze relic of what the outer solar system was like 4.6 billion years ago, during the period when the Sun formed. As the KBO orbits the Sun, its position noticeably shifts between exposures taken approximately 10 minutes apart. Following an initial proof of concept of the Hubble pilot observing program in June, the New Horizons team was awarded telescope time by the Space Telescope Science Institute for a wider survey in July. When the search was completed in early September, the team identified this KBO as "definitely reachable" by the New Horizons spacecraft.
Credits
NASA, ESA, SwRI, JHU/APL, and the New Horizons KBO Search TeamImage Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | 1110113Y |
| Object Description | Kuiper Belt Object |
| Distance | 1110113Y was roughly 4 billion miles (43 A.U.) from Earth at the time of observation. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from the following proposal: PI: J. Spencer (Southwest Research Institute), H. Weaver (JHU/APL), M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute), M. Showalter (SETI Institute), D. Borncamp (STScI), C. Fuentes (Northern Arizona University), A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute), J. Kavelaars (National Research Council of Canada), M. Belton (NOAO), and J.-M. Petit (CNRS, Observatoire de Besancon). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | June 24, 2014 Exposure Time: 31 minutes (5 x 370 seconds) |
| Filters | F350LP (long pass) |
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Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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