Spacecraft opens new year with flyby on solar system's edge

LAUREL, Md. — NASA's New Horizons spacecraft pulled off the most distant exploration of another world Tuesday, skimming past a tiny, icy object 4 billion miles from Earth that looks to be shaped like a bowling pin.

Flight controllers in Maryland declared success 10 hours after the high-risk, middle-of-the-night encounter at the mysterious body known as Ultima Thule on the frozen fringes of our solar system, an astounding 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto.

http://www.startribune.com/nasa-spacecraft-hurtles-toward-tiny-icy-world-beyond-pluto/503715102/