NASA’s faraway space snowman has flat, not round, behind
The faraway space snowman visited by NASA last month has a surprisingly flat — not round — behind.
New photos from the New Horizons spacecraft offer a new perspective on the small cosmic body 6.4 billion kilometres away. The two-lobed object, nicknamed Ultima Thule, is actually flatter on the backside than originally thought, according to scientists. Pictures released late last week — taken shortly after closest approach on New Year’s Day — provide an outline of the side not illuminated by the sun.
When viewed from the front, Ultima Thule still resembles a two-ball snowman. But from the side , the snowman looks squashed, sort of like a lemon and pie stuck together, end to end. “Seeing more data has significantly changed our view,” Southwest Research Institute’s Alan Stern, the lead scientist, said in a statement.
“It would be closer to reality to say Ultima Thule’s shape is flatter, like a pancake. But more importantly, the new images are creating scientific puzzles about how such an object could even be formed. ”