New horizons of NASA: the "snowman of space" seems crushed

It seems that the "man of space" looks more like a "spice bread man".

Scientists studying the distant object called Ultima Thule are reviewing their ideas about its form after examining the latest images redistributed on Earth.

The images, taken by the New Horizons probe on January 1st, show that the apparently bulbous body is relatively flat.

This interpretation is evident from the data acquired by the NASA spacecraft, as it returned to the Ultima Thule, as it was sliding at 50,000 km / h.

The little world appears dark outside a crescent sun along its branch. But scientists can see how the background stars blink and blink on the edges.

Rather than being two relatively spherical bodies in contact one with the other, Ultima Thule in this new badysis is determined to be much more crushed.

This is not the snowman lookalike that we all imagined.

The New Horizons science team said that the larger lobe, nicknamed "Ultima", looked more like a giant pancake; and the smaller lobe, nicknamed "Thule", has the shape of a bumpy walnut tree.

"We had an impression of Ultima Thule based on the limited number of images returned in the days that followed, but having more data dramatically changed our vision," says the principal investigator, Professor Alan Stern.

"It would be closer to the reality to say that the Ultima Thule form is flatter, like a pancake." But more importantly, the new images create scientific puzzles on how such an object might even be formed We have never seen anything like this in orbit around the Sun. "

Overflight of Ultima Thule by New Horizons took place some 6.5 billion km from the Earth. The meeting set a new record for the most distant visit ever made by a solar system vehicle.

The rendezvous took place in a frozen region known as the Kuiper Belt. The hope is that the structure and composition of Ultima Thule may reveal new perspectives on the creation of all planetary bodies, just over 4.6 billion years ago.

The latest photos were taken when New Horizons was about 8000 km from the object.

Many more images will be released in due course – but only slowly.

The small size of the New Horizons radio antenna, combined with its low power and short distance from the Earth, provides a glacial flow.

Twenty months were set aside for the downlink of all images and other observational data collected within a few hours of the closest approach on January 1 st.

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