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Just a week before the long-awaited meeting with Ultima Thule (or MU69 2014), the object of the Kuiper belt located beyond the orbit of Neptune, the probe New NASA's Horizons failed to detect predictable and consistent variations in reflectivity, or "light curve", that accompany all celestial bodies orbiting near a bright star "
" It's really a puzzle, "said Alan Stern, senior investigator at New Horizons, quoted by Gizmodo.
"Why [objeto] does it have such a small light curve that we can not even detect it?", The researcher questioned.
"I hoped that the detailed images of overflights would bring us much more mystery, but I did not expect it so soon"
Stern and his team are convinced that the images obtained from overflight would reveal the source of the mystery.
NASA's New Horizons space research vehicle, launched on January 19, 2006, is now in the Kuiper belt at about 43 AU (an astronomical unit or AU), the distance between Earth and Earth.
The Kuiper Belt is located beyond the eight main planets of the solar system, from the orbit of Neptune to about 50 AU from the Sun.
New, at an impressive distance of only 3,500 km, will map the composition of the surface and the morphology of Ultima Thule, 25 to 45 km wide, as well as looking for coma, d & # 39; rings or magnifiers in orbit.
at the KBO light curves were presented. Southwest Research Institute mission scientist in the state of Colorado, Marc Buie, suggested that the point of rotation of the object can now be lined up directly on NASA's spacecraft at the airport. Approach, and that the spacecraft would not be able to detect changes in brightness as irregular rocks fell into space.
"The Ultima [Thule] may be surrounded by a cloud of dust that obscures its light curve, in the same way that the coma of a comet often oppresses light reflected from its center," he said. the spokesperson of the SETI Institute, Mark Showalter.
A University of Virginia researcher, Anne Verbiscer, suggested that the object may be clogged by several small moons, where each body produces a discrete light curve, thus creating a "superposition of light curves" . Because there is no known example of this type of celestial object in our solar system, the idea becomes unachievable.
In the meantime, a meme on the subject appeared on social media, saying, "I'm not saying that they are extraterrestrials, but …"
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