New Horizons could provide data on beginnings of solar system: Sask. astronomer
A Saskatchewan astronomer is excited about the data a NASA spacecraft will send back to Earth.
James Edgar of Melville, a former president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, said NASA’s New Horizon’s explorer has already sent back data from space. The encounter submitted was with Ultima Thule, an object in the Kuiper belt beyond Pluto.
Ultima Thule orbited the sun untouched for the last 4.5 billion years and Edgar said it could possess valuable information.
“The reason they want to go there is because it’s a remnant of the beginning of the solar system,” Edgar said.