Source: BBC
Nasa's New Horizons: 'Snowman' shape of distant Ultima Thule revealed
By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent
2 January 2019
The "snowman" completes a full rotation every 15 hours
A new picture returned from Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft shows the little world to be two objects joined together - to give a look like a "snowman".
The US probe's images acquired as it approached Ultima hinted at the possibility of a double body, but the first detailed picture from Tuesday's close flyby confirms it.
New Horizons encountered Ultima 6.5 billion km from Earth.
The event set a record for the most distant ever exploration of a Solar System object. The previous mark was also set by New Horizons when it flew past the dwarf planet Pluto in 2015.
But Ultima is 1.5 billion km further out.
The mission team has decided to call the larger lobe "Ultima" and the smaller lobe "Thule". The volume ratio is three to one.
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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46742298
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