ultima thule

plural ultimae thules · plural ultima thules

1. Alternative letter-case form of ultima Thule (“a place beyond the known world; highest achievement”).

plural ultima Thules · alternative ultima thule · alternative Ultima Thule

1. A place beyond the borders of the known world.

   Ultima Thule! Utmost Isle! / Here in thy harbors for a while / We lower our sails; a while we rest / From the unending, endless quest.

   1880, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Dedication to G. W. G.”, in Ultima Thule

   1 more example

   It is impossible to define a reason for the Gulf Settlements attaining this unenviable notoriety, unless it is owing to the remoteness of their locality, and the kind of Ultima Thule that part of Australia seems to be.

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 306

2. Highest achievement.

plural Ultimae Thules · plural Ultima Thules

1. Alternative letter-case form of ultima Thule (“a place beyond the known world; highest achievement”).

   […]the metropolis of our far west, and about as neat and picturesque an assize town as ever was, with its fine old castle overhanging the river, and, like many of these Ultimæ Thules of civilisation, having several good shops and handsome churches !

   1875, “North-West Pembrokeshire”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, page 288

1. informalastronomySynonym of Arrokoth (“trans-Neptunian object (486958) 2014 MU69”).

   With substantial public input, the team has chosen “Ultima Thule” (pronounced ultima thoo-lee”) for the Kuiper Belt object the New Horizons spacecraft will explore on Jan. 1, 2019.

   2018 March 13, “New Horizons Chooses Nickname for ‘Ultimate’ Flyby Target”, in NASA

   2 more examples

   Since NASA’s New Horizons mission left its rendezvous with the dwarf planet Pluto in late 2015, it has been preparing for another close encounter, with cold classical Kuiper belt object (CCKBO) 2014 MU₆₉, also known as Ultima Thule

   2018 September 24, Paul Wood, “Preparing to meet Ultima Thule”, in Nature Astronomy

   Flyby images of (486958) Arrokoth (Ultima Thule, 2014 MU₆₉) show a comparatively bright "necklace" in the neck, or cleft between its two lobes, in contrast to its generally low albedo.

   2020 May 8, J. I. Katz, S. Wang, “Arrokoth's Necklace”, in arXiv

   Synonyms: Arrokoth, Arrokoth, minor planet 486958