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NASA’s New Horizons Mission to Release New Pictures of Ultima Thule NASA’s New Horizons Mission Releases Snowman-like Picture of Ultima Thule
(35 minutes later)
At a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, scientists working with NASA’s New Horizons mission expect to unveil a much clearer view of Ultima Thule, the small icy world that the spacecraft zipped past on Jan. 1. LAUREL, Md. — Ultima Thule, an icy world 4 billion miles from the sun, looks like a big snowman.
A day ago, scientists released a blurry picture of the small, icy world, also known by its official designation 2014 MU69, taken from a distance of half a million miles before the flyby. At a news conference on Wednesday, scientists working with NASA’s New Horizons mission released several images that the spacecraft took as it flew by on Jan. 1.
The object looked sort of like a fuzzy bowling pin. The scientists now say with confidence that Ultima Thule long ago was two bodies that got stuck together, what they call a “contact binary.”
Using newer images, which were transmitted back to Earth on Tuesday, the scientists may now be able to answer a few basic questions: Is Ultima Thule one object or two orbiting around each other? If it is one, does it look like it was two that got stuck together a long time ago? Is this a remnant from the earliest days of the solar system? “It’s two completely different objects that are now joined together,” said S. Alan Stern, the principal investigator for the mission.
“Ultima Thule is going to be a completely different world from what we’re seeing now,” Harold F. Weaver, the project scientist, promised during an earlier news conference, on Tuesday. It also looks pristine, almost unchanged since it formed out of a disk of dust and gas that orbited the sun more than 4.5 billion years ago. Studying it could offer insights to how Earth and the other planets formed.
A day ago, scientists released a blurry picture of the small body also known by its official designation 2014 MU69 taken from a distance of half a million miles, taken before the flyby.
The object looked sort of looked like a fuzzy bowling pin.
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The first batch of science data from the flyby arrived on Earth on Tuesday afternoon. More than 100 scientists, including Heidi B. Hammel, a planetary scientist and a media liaison for the science team, gathered at 8 p.m. for a look.
“Everybody was there,” Dr. Hammel said. “They all wanted to see it. The picture goes up and everybody applauds and cheers. Immediately, the chatter starts.”
A second shift of scientists worked on the data overnight, presenting more detailed analysis during a science team meeting on Wednesday morning.
Planetary scientists have never before seen a close-up of an object like Ultima Thule. It is likely an icy fragment that coalesced more than 4.5 billion years ago and which has remained in a deep freeze of the solar system’s Kuiper belt ever since, some 4 billion miles from the sun.Planetary scientists have never before seen a close-up of an object like Ultima Thule. It is likely an icy fragment that coalesced more than 4.5 billion years ago and which has remained in a deep freeze of the solar system’s Kuiper belt ever since, some 4 billion miles from the sun.
If it is indeed a pristine planetesimal, a building block of the planets, studying it will offer clues to how our planet and its neighbors formed.If it is indeed a pristine planetesimal, a building block of the planets, studying it will offer clues to how our planet and its neighbors formed.
Even clearer pictures will arrive on Earth on Wednesday. The full set of data will be a long time coming — trickling across the solar system over the next 20 months. Even clearer pictures are arriving on Earth in another transmission. The full set of data will be a long time coming — trickling across the solar system over the next 20 months.