New Horizons is flying towards an ancient meteorite named MU69

NASA's New Horizons probe is flying fast towards a mysterious "sensitive" celestial body known as MU69 in the Kuiper celestial belt and, through initial observation , the object has a red surface, possibly The ability is redder than the red streaks found on Pluto.

This object is about 30 - 45 km in diameter and is about 2.6 billion km from Pluto. It is expected that on the first day of the new year in 2019, MU69 will encounter the "oldest brick system of the solar system" , Amanda Zangari - the researcher from Southwest Research Institute said.

The size of an "ancient brick" if it is on Earth.

Recent observations made by the Hubble space telescope show that MU69 has a red surface , even redder than Pluto. Despite such a large diameter, MU69 is still the smallest object ever measured in color at the small Kuiper celestial belt.

The red color of MU69 is the same as the red color of the streaks on Pluto or its moon Charon, suggesting the presence of tholin - a molecule formed through the ultraviolet irradiation activity of the Organic compounds like methane and ethane. Tholin does not naturally form on Earth but there are many on the surface of ice bodies located in the outer solar system. Thanks to Hubble, scientists were able to confirm that MU69 was part of an ancient cold area of ​​the Kuiper belt that contained the oldest celestial bodies in the solar system.

Pluto has very dark red patches and bricks that New Horizons is about to encounter are even redder.

New Horizons is currently located about 5.5 billion km from Earth. Since meeting Pluto on July 15 last year, the ship has left this distant planet about 540 million km and flies at 14km / s. NASA said 99% of the data was collected and stored by New Horizons during the meeting of Pluto history being transmitted to Earth and the process is expected to be completed by October 23. As the ship goes further, it will further penetrate the Kuiper belt where it is considered the world of ancient celestial bodies and perhaps today is the "ancient brick", then New Horizons will find a background tomorrow Ancient civilization out of Earth.