From the space probe New Horizons to the earth, sent photos of the celestial body Ultima Thule clearly showed that this consisted of two scoops of ice cream, which were finally glued quasi-together, said the US space Agency on Wednesday. According to Nasa scientists, he looks “like a snowman”.
#Ultima Thule used to be 2 separate objects. It likely formed over time as a rotating cloud of small, icy bodies started to combine. Eventually, 2 larger bodies remained & slowly spiraled closer until they touched, forming the bi-lobed object we see today: https://t.co/ZuxLDtzW9c pic.twitter.com/FwWDAaAdey
— Nasa (@Nasa) 2. January 2019
“New Horizons” had overflown the 2014 with the help of telescopes, discovered celestial body on Tuesday. Ultima Thule is removed so that with 6.4 billion kilometers, the farthest, and presumed oldest celestial body that has ever been studied by a space probe.
Up to the time of flight of the probe, the researchers had only a fuzzy recording, which was made from half a Million kilometers away and to the Ultima Thule is more of a cone shape. “New Horizons” delivered the images of 27’000 kilometers away.
The sky of the body is according to Nasa, approximately 31 kilometres in length and will rotate about every 15 hours. Ultima Thule is located in a dark and cold space region called the Kuiper belt. The researchers hope to gain from the “New Horizons”-data in understanding the formation of planets. (roy/sda)
Created: 03.01.2019, 01:02 PM
