{"id":13334,"date":"2019-02-20T19:31:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T11:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/new-horizons-finds-ultima-thule-has-an-unexpected-flattened-shape\/"},"modified":"2019-02-20T19:31:25","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T11:31:25","slug":"new-horizons-finds-ultima-thule-has-an-unexpected-flattened-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/new-horizons-finds-ultima-thule-has-an-unexpected-flattened-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"New Horizons finds Ultima Thule has an unexpected, flattened shape"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scientists\u2019 understanding of the shape of Ultima Thule, officially known as 2014 MU69, has changed since the New Horizons spacecraft\u2019s Jan. 1 flyby. Imagery downlinked by the probe in recent weeks suggests Ultima Thule\u2019s two lobes have a flatter shape than the spherical projection suggested by the flyby\u2019s initial pictures. The dashed blue line marks the remaining uncertainty in the shape of each lobe. Credit: NASA\/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory\/Southwest Research Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Images taken by NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft when it flew by an object the size of a large metropolitan area at the frontier of the solar system Jan. 1 have revealed the miniature world has a more flattened shape than the flyby\u2019s initial pictures suggested.<\/p>\n

The oddly-shaped object in the Kuiper Belt, located a billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto, became the most distant planetary body ever explored when the New Horizons spacecraft zipped by Jan. 1 at a relative velocity of roughly 32,000 mph, or 9 miles per second (14 kilometers per second).<\/p>\n

Nicknamed Ultima Thule, the New Horizons spacecraft\u2019s first target after visiting Pluto in 2015 was revealed to be a dual-lobed object as the probe beamed its first close-up images back to Earth after the New Year\u2019s Day encounter.<\/p>\n

But instead of having the shape of a snowman \u2014 with one spherical lobe larger than the other \u2014 scientists now believe Ultima Thule\u2019s two sections have a more flattened shape.<\/p>\n

The larger of the two lobes \u2014 nicknamed Ultima \u2014 appears to be shaped like a giant pancake, or a pebble that could be thrown to skip across water. The smaller lobe, nicknamed Thule, resembles a dented walnut, according to mission scientists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d said Alan Stern, the New Horizons mission\u2019s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute, in a Feb. 8 statement. \u201cIt would be closer to reality to say Ultima Thule\u2019s 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\u2019ve never seen something like this orbiting the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first few days after the flyby, scientists said they thought the object formed when two objects \u2014 which originally formed separately as the solar system was born 4.5 billion years ago \u2014 merged at a slow speed.<\/p>\n

Scientists used a series of images captured by New Horizons as it departed Ultima Thule to estimate the object\u2019s shape from the side. Imagery previously released showed Ultima Thule\u2019s sunlit side from New Horizons on approach, but the departure sequence reveals a crescent Ultima Thule.<\/p>\n

The shadowed side of Ultima Thule traced a path through a background star field, briefly blocking the light from the stars as New Horizons completed the flyby.<\/p>\n

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