Ultima Thule from New Horizons
Explanation:
How do distant asteroids differ from those near the Sun?
To help find out,
NASA sent the robotic
New Horizons spacecraft past the classical
Kuiper belt object
2014 MU69,
nicknamed Ultima Thule, the farthest asteroid yet visited by a human spacecraft.
Zooming past the 30-km long space rock on January 1, the
featured
image is the highest resolution picture of
Ultima Thule's surface beamed back so far.
Utima Thuli
does look different than
imaged
asteroids of the inner Solar System,
as it shows unusual surface texture, relatively few obvious craters,
and nearly spherical lobes.
Its shape is hypothesized to have formed from the
coalescence of early Solar System rubble in into two objects --
Ultima and Thule -- which then spiraled together and
stuck.
Research will continue into
understanding the origin of different
surface regions on Ultima Thule, whether it has a thin atmosphere,
how it obtained its red color, and what this new knowledge of the
ancient Solar System tells us about the
formation of our Earth.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
