Ultima Thule Flyby on January 1 2019

llustration of NASAs New Horizons spacecraft encountering 2014 MU69 - nicknamed Ultima Thule - a Kuiper Belt object that orbits one billion miles beyond Pluto. Set for New Years 2019 New Horizons exploration of Ultima will be the farthest space probe flyby in history. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

On January 1 2019, New Horizons will fly by its target, nicknamed Ultima Thule, approximately four billion miles from Earth - the farthest space probe flyby in history. This encounter complements the discoveries still coming from the mission's July 2015 exploration of the Pluto system. However, this time, the spacecraft will come three times closer to Ultima than it did to Pluto.