Wonder what parts of the solar system looked like before Earth formed? Me too! Thanks, Science (and Engineering)!

I hope everyone has been watching the news from NASA and Johns Hopkins APL over the past couple of days. A spectacular photo (above) was released yesterday (many more and better to come in... waiting at data transmission rates that make your '80s dial-up modem seem fast). Ultima Thule gives us a look back in time to before Earth's formation 4.6 billion years ago. Over the coming weeks and months we will learn a lot about what parts of the solar system looked like before planets coalesced or were bombarded by millions of asteroid collisions. We'll probably learn more about what many of the chunks of material were made of before all of those violent collisions. These are discoveries that are very hard to make in the inner solar system. Not only that, but human beings have now visited an object about 70 times farther from Earth than Mars (at its closest approach).

Thanks, Science!

And a huge nod and thanks to all of the Engineering that went in to the design-build-launch-control of New Horizons!