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The sequence published by the US Space Agency shows the view of the New Horizons satellite as follows: to reach Ultima Thule's closest approach on January 1, leaves the object – officially dubbed MU69 2014, at a speed of 50,000 kilometers per hour.
"This is an incredible sequence of images captured by a probe to explore a small world 6.5 billion kilometers from Earth," said Alan Stern, chief mission researcher, Southwest Research Institute. "No image of this kind has ever been captured in the images."
Although they correspond to the moment of withdrawal, these will not be the last images to be sent to Earth. NASA points out that it expects "a lot more", but for now, they contain scientifically relevant information about the mysterious form of Ultima Thule. If the first "photograph" of the object revealed a kind of snowman with two distinct and apparently spherical segments, researchers can now see a part not illuminated by the Sun but "denounced" because it covers the stars [19659004BothsectionsareconfirmedbutnotthesphericalformInastatementNASAexplainsthatmostofitlookslikea"giantpancake"whilethesmalleronelookslikeanirregularnut
"We had an idea of Ultima Thule based on the limited number of images sent to the time of the approach, but having more data has significantly changed our perspective," Stern adds.
This footage was captured from a different angle than the "tangent" photos. The new perception, however, leaves researchers with the task of "new scientific puzzles" on their training. "We have never seen anything like this in orbit around the Sun," he says.
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