Sections
Log in
Top News
U.S. News World News Featured Voices
Odd News
Entertainment
Movies Music TV
Sports
Soccer NFL NBA MLB NHL Golf Horse Racing Tennis Col. Football Col. Basketball
Photos
News Entertainment Sports Features Archives
More...
Defense Featured Science Health Archive Almanac
About Feedback
About Feedback
Search
Science News
Feb. 11, 2019 / 11:35 AM

Ultima Thule is more pancake than snowman, NASA scientists discover

"The new images are creating scientific puzzles about how such an object could even be formed," scientists Alan Stern said. "We've never seen something like this orbiting the sun."

By
Brooks Hays
Photographs taken from a different angle showed Ultima Thule is much flatter than scientists previously thought. Photo by NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Photographs taken from a different angle showed Ultima Thule is much flatter than scientists previously thought. Photo by NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/National Optical Astronomy Observatory

Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Ultima Thule is flatter than scientists originally thought.

As revealed by the latest images captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, only recently downloaded and analyzed by mission scientists, the Kuiper Belt object is more pancake than snowman.

The new images were some of the last New Horizons snapped as it zoomed past the distant object at a speed of 31,000 miles per hour. The new photos offered scientists a new perspective of the minor planet -- the first contact binary to be explored by spacecraft.

By combining the perspectives offered by a handful of images, scientists confirmed Ultima Thule's two lobes aren't spherical. They're relatively flat.

RELATED Kilometer-sized Kuiper belt object provides missing link in planetary evolution

Scientists found the object's larger lobe is shaped like a fluffy pancake, while the smaller of the two lobes recalls a "dented walnut."

"We had an impression of Ultima Thule based on the limited number of images returned in the days around the flyby, but seeing more data has significantly changed our view," Alan Stern, principal investigator on the mission and scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, said in a news release. "It would be closer to reality to say Ultima Thule's shape is flatter, like a pancake. But more importantly, the new images are creating scientific puzzles about how such an object could even be formed. We've never seen something like this orbiting the sun."

The new images weren't very clear. New Horizons' camera was forced to use a longer exposure time to capture the photos, blurring the images. But NASA scientists were able to sharpen the images.

RELATED NASA's New Horizons shares clearest image yet of Ultima Thule

Only half the object's peanut-like shape is visible in the photo series, which at first, make it difficult to appreciate the object's shape. But by tracking which background stars became blocked by the dark Kuiper Belt object, scientists were able to trace the object's outline.

"While the very nature of a fast flyby in some ways limits how well we can determine the true shape of Ultima Thule, the new results clearly show that Ultima and Thule are much flatter than originally believed, and much flatter than expected," said Hal Weaver, a New Horizons project scientist from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. "This will undoubtedly motivate new theories of planetesimal formation in the early solar system."

Read More

Ultima Thule is first contact binary to be explored by a spacecraft
  • Topics
  • Alan Stern
  • Johns Hopkins
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more UPI news and photos.

Trending Stories

Virgin Galactic carries test passenger to space for the first time
NASA, SpaceX finish Crew Dragon review; March 2 launch date still targeted
Tiny T. rex relative among earliest Cretaceous tyrannosaurs in N. America
JAXA's Hayabusa-2 touches down on asteroid Ryugu
Climate change: Winters of future will be colder -- and also warmer

Photo Gallery

 
The 1975, Dua Lipa walk Brit Awards red carpet

Latest News

Kim reported en route to Vietnam for summit with Trump
Big day for 'Beale Street' at the Independent Spirit Awards
John Krasinski confirms 'Quiet Place' sequel plans
Microsoft workers protest nearly $480M military deal
Sentencing memo: Manafort 'repeatedly and brazenly' broke the law
 
Back to Article
/
Back to top
About UPI Contact Feedback Advertisements Submit News Tips
Copyright © 2019 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of UsePrivacy Policy