[ad_1]
Judging by the images, the object belongs to the so-called "double contact system".
The command of the New Horizons automatic interplanetary station showed the first snapshot of the subject of the Kuiper Belt 2014 MU69 or Ultima Tul, obtained for the short time 1 January 2019 This looks like a snowman, composed of two reddish spheres – larger and smaller. According to the photographs, the object belongs to a number of "dual contact systems", which result from the slow approximation of two small bodies (in the case of MU69 in 2014, these bodies were received the notation "Ultima" and "Tula"). In the end, they collide and regroup to form a dumbbell object. The similar form has the nucleus of comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It turned out that the preliminary estimates of the size and shape of the object, obtained from ground observations during three transit events of 2014 MU69 on a disk of 39; distant stars were quite accurate.
New horizons – the first spacecraft that flew Pluto, near. Thanks to the aforementioned astronomers gathered in a few days, they discovered that there were Cryovolcans, glaciers, mountain ranges and signs of underground ocean on Pluto, as well as for the first time its Charon satellites , Nitta, Hydra and Kerber. After the 2015 flight, mission officials decided to explore the Kuiper Belt, located at a distance of 30 to 55 astronomical units from the Sun and containing the remaining bodies after formation of the solar system.
Project MU69 or Ultima Thule 2014 (Ultima Thule – the name was given in honor of the mythical North Island of Europe in ancient and medieval literature and cartography). This is a transneptone object from the Kuiper Belt, which has been revolving around the Sun for 295 years. The station flew 140 seconds after the MU69 of 2014 on January 1, 2019 at 0533 GMT. The minimum distance to the object was about 3,500 km.
New photos, in which the shape of the object is clearly visible, are taken in about an hour. to the maximum approximation of a distance of 27 thousand kilometers. The "snowman" has a height of about 31 kilometers. The large field (called "Ultima") is 19 km wide, smaller ("Tula") – 12 km. Scientists believe that they converge and unite at the very beginning of the formation of the solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. The speed of their collision was such that the car in an accident at such a speed could only break the bumper. At the point of contact, one can see a "neck" with a relatively light surface, which may indicate a "young" substance. The rotation period of the object is about 15 hours.
The reddish hue of the object resembles a color similar to that found on the north pole of Charon (Mordor region) and on Pluto. There, the reddish color of the surface was explained by the presence of complex organic molecules, called Tolin. However, in this case, it was the deposition of methane and nitrogen from the atmosphere of Pluto Charon, which, under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, had turned into more complex organic matter. This scenario could not be achieved on Ultimy Thule, but, as scientists have pointed out at a press conference, many other options could explain the reddish color of the object.
Source link
