Community News

New Horizons Open Science Team Meeting #60 on the Kuiper Belt and Outer Heliosphere: Abstracts due 31 August

Please join and share your work at the next New Horizons Science Team Meeting #60 at Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, 28-30 September 2026.

Currently at 65 au, New Horizons is the only mission in the outer heliosphere and Kuiper Belt, and is beyond most of the obscuring foreground of the zodiacal cloud. At this distant location, New Horizons is measuring interstellar pick-up ions for the first time together with solar wind plasma, energetic particles, and Galactic Cosmic Rays. The encounter with the heliospheric Termination Shock is estimated to fall no earlier than 2027 and latest in the mid 2030’s, and would bring new insights to help solve the mysteries that the Voyager Interstellar Mission left behind. The in-situ heliophysics measurements nearing the boundary are particularly important as IMAP is in its prime mission and remotely imaging this region and beyond. New Horizons’ UV spectrometer and optical telescope have uncovered unprecedented spectra of the cosmic background and other features that may reveal new astrophysical processes in the galaxy and beyond. New Horizons’ dust counter continues to detect a stubbornly high dust flux that is contrary to the theoretical expectations of a Kuiper cliff, potentially pointing to a significantly extended Kuiper Belt. Lastly, together with a ground-based search program, further, new distant KBOs are being detected that New Horizons is planning to observe remotely to provide critical constraints on planetesimal formation.

The meeting solicits presentations on planetary science, heliophysics and astrophysics relevant to the past, present and future investigations of New Horizons.

Please register and submit your brief abstract here: https://forms.gle/pYwwUkyJdt29s2TY7

AGU26 Fall Meeting (San Francisco, CA, USA; December 7-11, 2026) Abstract Submission Deadline: Wednesday, August 5

One session we would like to highlight in particular, which fits well within the scope of the OH-VLISM seminar series and whose conveners include two members of the OH-VLISM organizing committee, is:

SH003: Across the Heliosphere: Using In-situ Observations and Modeling as Tools for Probing the Heliospheric Boundaries, Heliosheath, and VLISM

Conveners: Marc Kornbleuth, Parisa Mostafavi, Laxman Adhikari, Jonathan Gasser, Jesse Miller

Session Description: The outer heliosphere encompasses the region beyond the planets and extends to the very local interstellar medium (VLISM). The solar wind is influenced by its interaction with interstellar material - yielding boundaries such as the termination shock and heliopause. Voyager 1 and 2, approaching 50 years of travel, are the first spacecraft to provide in-situ observations of the termination shock, heliosheath, heliopause, and VLISM. Meanwhile, New Horizons will cross the termination shock in the coming years and will advance our understanding of termination shock physics and heliosheath dynamics. Complementing these observations, numerical and analytical models, including efforts from SHIELD DRIVE and ISSI teams, play critical roles in interpreting data and constraining underlying physical processes. We solicit presentations that explore the outer heliosphere and VLISM through data analysis, modeling, and predictions for upcoming observations. We encourage topics concerning plasma, magnetic fields, pickup ions, dust, and cosmic rays in the outer heliosphere.

Another session we would like to highlight is the IMAP session, which is dedicated to the initial scientific breakthroughs and new science being provided by, and in support of, the recently launched IMAP mission:

SH011: Connecting the Sun, Heliosphere, and Local Interstellar Medium, Including First-Year Results from NASA's IMAP Mission

Conveners: J. Grant Mitchell, Nehpreet Walia, Fatemeh Rahmanifard

Session Description: NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) was launched in September 2025 with a payload of ten instruments designed to study the solar wind and its interaction with the very local interstellar medium (VLISM). With its unique capability to simultaneously observe the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field, along with suprathermal particles, pickup ions, interstellar neutrals and their ultraviolet glow, energetic neutral atoms, and interstellar dust, IMAP provides unprecedented measurements of the plasma environment generated by the Sun, from the Sun-Earth L1 point to the outer heliosphere. In this session, we explore the initial scientific breakthroughs from IMAP's first year of observations. We also welcome abstracts from the inner and outer heliosphere communities, including studies from current and past missions, as well as theoretical and modeling efforts, that advance our understanding of particle acceleration and the processes governing heliosphere-VLISM interactions.

The deadline for abstract submission is August 5, 2026 at 23:59 EDT/03:59 UTC

There is a $80 processing fee for regular submissions or a $45 processing fee for student submissions.

More information regarding the Fall Meeting and abstract submission can be found at: https://www.agu.org/annual-meeting

A Petition for Continued Funding of Measurements by NASA’s New Horizons Mission

It is my (James Green, former Planetary Science Division Director) understanding that continued New Horizons heliophysics measurements are threatened unless NASA finds a way for the Heliophysics Division to fund the data collection and downlink. The Heliophysics Decadal states “New Horizons will fill a major gap in the understanding of the plasma physics of the outer heliosphere …” (Priority Science Goal 4). New Horizons measurements are unique and must continue uninterrupted.

New Horizons is the only spacecraft now in the outer heliosphere and is an essential element of the Heliophysics System Observatory making measurements that the two Voyager spacecraft were not equipped to do. For example, New Horizons is making in-situ measurements of Pick-Up Ions source population that the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) observes remotely as energetic neutral atoms. This New Horizons-IMAP partnership provides a unique opportunity that will probably never again arise and must be fully exploited which should significantly help in defining future missions. Help make our planetary missions multidisciplinary by signing the petition.

To sign the Petition please go to ->  https://c.org/Yv6zG7JnvL

For questions, contact: James Green – jlgreen1@earthlink.net