Ruth Patrick Science Education Center Observatory
Solar System Series - Ultima Thule
The Ultima Thule cache is part of the solar system cache series that forms an immersive, scaled model of our solar system in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA). The 5-meter (16.4-feet) dome of the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center (RPSEC) Observatory represents the diameter of the Sun known as Sol. The distance from the observatory to this cache is about 15 miles, which is the average distance of the orbit of Ultima Thule around the Sun. The geocache itself is an ammo can. This hide is a little different than the other caches in this series. This should provide a little extra fun for your geocaching enjoyment. See below for a suggestion on approaching the cache.
Ultima Thule was part of the New Horizons Space Mission. The main purpose of New Horizons was to fly past Dwarf Planet Pluto. During that flyby, the probe took pictures and scientific measurements to help us learn more about this famous dwarf planet. After passing Pluto, the Hubble Space telescope was used to scan the area along the trajectory in order to make a flyby of a Kuiper Belt object. On June 26, 2014, the space telescope discovered (486958) 2014 MU69. This object was nicknamed Ultima Thule on March 13, 2018. This object measures about 20 miles across, so the scaled diameter is too small to see.
Makemake Facts:
- Pronounced THOO-lee
- Ultima Thule means, "distant or unknown region"
- Orbit = 297 Earth years
- 20 miles (30 km) long - elongated shape
- 4.1 billion miles (6.7 billion km) from the Sun
| Ultima Thule Distances with Sun Diameter = 5 m. |
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Orbit km
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Orbit mi
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24.0
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14.9
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Please use the designated parking location. Cross the dirt road and walk along the power line right of way to approach the cache. It is better not to approach from the dirt road. There is a bunch of tree debris in the way if you try from that direction.
Be sure to obtain the code from the cache container in order to find the final Sun cache location.
Congratulations to hiking2175 & PlantStrong FTF Ultima Thule.
RPSEC Solar System Series:
- RPSEC Mercury - http://coord.info/GC3HQQH
- RPSEC Venus - http://coord.info/GC3JGQ4
- RPSEC Earth - http://coord.info/GC3V76Q
- RPSEC Mars - http://coord.info/GC41QMY
- RPSEC Dwarf Planet Ceres - http://coord.info/GC4342F
- RPSEC Jupiter - http://coord.info/GC49K1F
- RPSEC Saturn - http://coord.info/GC532M6
- RPSEC Uranus - http://coord.info/GC5FFXH
- RPSEC Neptune - http://coord.info/GC5QGBB
- RPSEC Dwarf Planet Pluto - http://coord.info/GC63TR7
- RPSEC Dwarf Planet Haumea - http://coord.info/GC6BXJ4
- RPSEC Dwarf Planet Makemake - http://coord.info/GC6F1RZ
- RPSEC Dwarf Planet Eris - http://coord.info/GC6HVTA
- RPSEC Sun - https://coord.info/GC6VW9W - get the cache codes from the first 13 Solar System Series caches to find the Sun.
Solar System in One Day Honor Roll. Find all of the above caches in one day and be included in the honor roll located on the RPSEC Sun page.
- RPSEC Ultima Thule - http://coord.info/GC81EPX