New Horizons spacecraft just flew by a really distant asteroid

Brian May, the lead guitarist of the rock band, Queen, is also an astrophysicist and one of the science team collaborators of the New Horizons space program. The video below is the song that he wrote to celebrate the New Horizons' latest achievement ... flying by Ultima Thule.

You and your class might begin this activity with a viewing of Brian May's just-released song and a class discussion about the New Year's day fly-by. On January 1st, 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft passed close to Ultima Thule, a Kuiper Belt object that's a billion miles beyond Pluto. That milestone marked the most distant celestial object that we have ever been able to see close-up.  In this activity student do some rate conversions to try to understand the delay in knowing that the mission was a success.