Best-Ever View of Distant Object Ultima Thule Reveals Weird Circles, Pits
By Mike Wall 3 hours ago
This is the most detailed view of the distant object Ultima Thule. The photo is a processed composite combining nine individual images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft just 6.5 minutes before the spacecraft's closest approach to Ultima Thule on Jan. 1, 2019.(Image: © NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute, National Optical Astronomy Observatory)
The best-ever photos of Ultima Thule have made it down to Earth, and they heighten the intrigue about the frigid and faraway world.
On New Year's Day, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft zoomed past the 21-mile-long (34 kilometers) Ultima Thule, setting a record for the most distant planetary encounter in history. (Ultima lies about 1 billion miles, or 1.6 billion km, beyond Pluto, which New Horizons flew by in July 2015.)
New Horizons has been beaming flyby data and imagery home to its handlers ever since, and will continue to do so for another 18 months. The early returns have been spectacular, revealing Ultima Thule to be a weird snowman-pancake hybrid with mysterious features, such as a bright "collar' where the body's two lobes meet. [New Horizons at Ultima Thule: Full Coverage]
And now we have our best look yet. New flyby photos released today (Feb. 22) show Ultima in even more stunning detail, capturing bright circular features and dark pits, whose origins remain mysterious.
More:
https://www.space.com/new-horizons-best-view-ultima-thule.html
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New Horizons finds Ultima Thule has an unexpected, flattened shape
February 20, 2019
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Nicknamed Ultima Thule, the New Horizons spacecraft’s 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’s Day encounter.
But instead of having the shape of a snowman — with one spherical lobe larger than the other — scientists now believe Ultima Thule’s two sections have a more flattened shape.
The larger of the two lobes — nicknamed Ultima — 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.
More:
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/02/20/new-horizons-finds-ultima-thule-has-an-unexpected-flattened-shape/
= new reply since forum marked as read
The flat earthers.
