Video: New Horizons animation

The frozen faraway miniature world targeted for a high-speed flyby by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on Jan. 1, 2019, now has a nickname: Ultima Thule.

New Horizons project manager Glen Fountain, a veteran of nearly 50 years at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, told the Pluto probe’s team to live in the moment for Tuesday’s historic flyby, but look out for last-minute snags.

The first well-resolved color photos of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, speeding toward a close-up encounter July 14, show a world blotched with dark features spanning two very different sides of the dwarf planet.