{"id":17884,"date":"2019-11-12T22:14:31","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T14:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ultima-thule-no-more-new-horizons-space-snowman-is-named-arrokoth\/"},"modified":"2019-11-12T22:14:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T14:14:31","slug":"ultima-thule-no-more-new-horizons-space-snowman-is-named-arrokoth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ultima-thule-no-more-new-horizons-space-snowman-is-named-arrokoth\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ultima Thule\u2019 no more: New Horizons\u2019 space snowman is named Arrokoth"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_532519\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-532519\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-532519\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/191112-arrokoth3-630x447.png\" alt=\"Arrokoth\" width=\"630\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/191112-arrokoth3-630x447.png 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/191112-arrokoth3-768x545.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/191112-arrokoth3-1260x895.png 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/191112-arrokoth3.png 1579w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-532519\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A composite image based on data from NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft shows the icy Kuiper Belt object formerly known as 2014 MU69 or Ultima Thule, and now called Arrokoth. (NASA \/ SwRI \/ JHUAPL Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The snowman-shaped object that NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe flew past nearly a year ago on the solar system\u2019s icy fringe now has a Native American name: Arrokoth, a word that means \u201csky\u201d in the Powhatan\/Algonquian language.<\/p>\n<p>Arrokoth replaces earlier labels for the Kuiper Belt object, including the numerical designation 2014 MU69 and the nickname Ultima Thule, which turned out to be rather controversial.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the New Horizons science team announced today that their proposed name has won approval by the International Astronomical Union and its Minor Planet Center.<\/p>\n<p>Before making the proposal, the scientists won the consent of elders and representatives of the Powhatan Tribe \u2014 which is best-known as the home tribe for Pocahontas in the 17th century. Some present-day members of the tribe live in Maryland, which was the home base for New Horizons mission operations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe name \u2018Arrokoth\u2019 reflects the inspiration of looking to the skies and wondering about the stars and worlds beyond our own,\u201d New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, a planetary scientist at Southwest Research Institute, said in a NASA news release. \u201cThat desire to learn is at the heart of the New Horizons mission, and we\u2019re honored to join with the Powhatan community and people of Maryland in this celebration of discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lori Glaze, director of NASA\u2019s Planetary Science Division, praised the choice of the name and said \u201cwe graciously accept this gift from the Powhatan people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"NASA ScienceCasts: Watch the History of our Solar System Fly By with MU69\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Uc1p7cU-e4w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In accordance with IAU naming conventions, the privilege of proposing a permanent name for a celestial body is given to its discoverers. For the 22-mile-long, two-lobed object formerly known as 2014 MU69, those would be the scientists of the New Horizons team, who identified it in 2014 using the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, the team was looking for a follow-up object to study in the wake of New Horizons\u2019 2015 flyby of Pluto and its moons. Arrokoth \u2014 4 billion miles from Earth and 1 billion miles beyond Pluto \u2014 was chosen because it was reachable and potentially intriguing. The Jan. 1 flyby did not disappoint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cData from the newly named Arrokoth has given us clues about the formation of planets and our cosmic origins,\u201d said Marc Buie, a member of the discovery team from Southwest Research Institute. \u201cWe believe this ancient body, composed of two distinct lobes that merged into one entity, may harbor answers that contribute to our understanding of the origin of life on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Minor Planet Center published the new name last week in its official circular and recognized the Powhatan Tribe\u2019s connection to the Chesapeake Bay region, where the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University\u2019s Applied Physics Laboratory are based.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstitutions in this region played a prominent role in facilitating the discovery and exploration of this ancient and distant object,\u201d the center\u2019s citation noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArrokoth\u201d generated none of the controversy that was attached to the object\u2019s previous nickname, Ultima Thule.<\/p>\n<p>Ultima Thule is a term that was used in ancient times to describe a place beyond the known world, but the phrase was adopted by Nazis and other right-wing extremists to refer to the mythical home of an \u201cAryan race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the hubbub over January\u2019s flyby, the New Horizons team came in for some criticism for choosing the term. At the time, Stern insisted that Ultima Thule served as a \u201cwonderful meme for exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust because some bad guys once liked that term, we\u2019re not going to let \u2019em hijack it,\u201d he said. But renaming the object clears away the controversy.<\/p>\n<p>Stern and the other scientists on the New Horizons team are now on the watch for yet another object in the solar system\u2019s icy Kuiper Belt that could serve as a worthy target for a flyby.<\/p>\n<p><em>This report has been updated to reflect the Minor Planet Center\u2019s publication of Arrokoth as the Kuiper Belt object\u2019s official name. Hat tip to Daniel Fischer for the additional information and link.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A composite image based on data from NASA\u2019s New Horizons spacecraft shows the icy Kuiper Belt object formerly known as 2014 MU69 or Ultima Thule, and now called Arrokoth. (NASA \/ SwRI \/ JHUAPL Photo) The snowman-shaped object that NASA\u2019s New Horizons probe flew past nearly a year ago on the solar system\u2019s icy fringe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2337,2338,2173,4809,2174,4810,2937],"class_list":["post-17884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-2014-mu69","tag-arrokoth","tag-kuiper-belt","tag-nasa-new-horizons","tag-new-horizons","tag-new-horizons-probe","tag-ultima-thule"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17884"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}