NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Prepares To Meet Mysterious 4.6 Billion Year Old Object Beyond Pluto

NASA's New Horizons is once again preparing to boldly go where no man has gone before. This time, the mission's spacecraft is making its way into deep space and will attempt to take photos of an ancient object near Pluto that has existed for 4.6 billion years.

According to Morning Ticker, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will now be sent towards 2014 MU69, which can be found in the Kuiper Belt. The mysterious object was chosen to be the next New Horizons mission since scientists believe that the object has not changed since the birth of the solar system billions of years ago.

The strange object has previously been unobserved by scientists due to its location in the Kuiper Belt, making it impossible to see even with special telescopes. 2014 MU69 completes its orbit of the sun in around 300 years, which has led scientists to believe that the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) has remained unchanged for billions of years.

New Horizons science team has been meeting yesterday and today in Boulder! #PlutoFlyby pic.twitter.com/SN5I1JDi8P

— AlanStern (@AlanStern) May 6, 2016

NASA's New Horizons will be using the same cameras that were used for the Pluto flyby in 2015. New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern had spoken about his excitement over finding out more about the mysterious 4.6 billion-year-old object that resides beyond Pluto.

"2014 MU69 is a great choice because it is just the kind of ancient KBO, formed where it orbits now, that the Decadal Survey desired us to fly by," Stern said in the statement. The researcher also added that 2014 MU69 was a better candidate to target since it would cost less to get there.

"Moreover, this KBO costs less fuel to reach, leaving more fuel for the flyby, for ancillary science, and greater fuel reserves to protect against the unforeseen," Stern concluded. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will approach 2014 MU69 in the Kuiper Belt by New Year's Day 2019.