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EST (0533 GMT) Jan. 1. Credit: NASA/Bill IngallsNASA’s New Horizons spacecraft raced past a frozen remnant of the solar system’s birth early New Year’s Day, phoned home to confirm a successful flyby and readied a treasure trove of pictures and other data for transmission back to eager scientists some 4.1 billion miles away.The nuclear-powered spacecraft passed within 2,191.6 miles of its target, a small 19-mile-wide body known as Ultima Thule, at 12:33 a.m. EST (GMT-5), streaking by at 32,212 mph, 14 times faster than the bullet from an M-16 assault rifle.New Horizons carried out the flyby in radio silence, aiming its instruments at Ultima Thule and its surroundings as its flight computer methodically worked through a complex science timeline intended to maximize the return from its suite of cameras, spectrometers and other instruments.Back at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory near Baltimore, anxious scientists and engineers could only wait and wonder, celebrating New Year’s Eve with a program of planetary science discussions and enthusiastic countdowns to mark the new year and, 33 minutes later, the moment of Ultima Thule’s flyby.Brian May, lead guitarist for the legendary rock band Queen who also holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics, wowed the revelers, sporting party hats and sipping champagne, with a new music video praising the New Horizons mission.It was a welcome diversion because in the end, all they could do was wait and keep their fingers crossed while New Horizons, far beyond any human oversight or assistance, worked through its timeline.At New Horizons’ enormous distance from Earth, radio signals from the spacecraft need six hours and eight minutes to cross the 4l.1-billion-mile gulf. The phone home health check could not begin until the highest priority observations were complete.Finally, a few hours after the flyby, New Horizons turned to point its fixed antenna at Earth and radioed a brief status report back to APL.

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