NASA's Pluto-gazing New Horizons is awake and ready for its next close-up

Rise and shine, New Horizons. You've got a job to do.

NASA's intrepid spacecraft, which made its close flyby of Pluto in July 2015, just woke up from a planned nearly six-month hibernation in preparation for its next encounter: On New Year's Day 2019, it will near a mysterious object that's never been seen from close range.

SEE ALSO: Hello, Pluto: The 9-year journey to a new horizon

The distant object, 4 billion miles from Earth, is known by the nickname Ultima Thule. It's a billion miles from Pluto in a part of space known as the Kuiper Belt, which is made up of a mass of icy bodies thought to be leftovers from the dawn of the solar system. Read more...

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