February 09, 2019

Meanwhile, In the Kuiper Belt

N.A.S.A.s New Horizons probe has just had its best pictures of " _2014_MU69">Ultima Thule" processed. Now we've sent one of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes to bring us the latest on this Kuiper belt object. However, given what we've seen so far it's fairly clear that it is just a bog standard comet and pretty much uninteresting in any way. 



"That last sentence is about as wrong as is grammatically possible."

Oh.

Well, it appears that Ultima Thule still had some surprises, one of which  was only revealed when the spacecraft flew past it. 

You see, according to the mission webpage, this is believed to be the best picture that New Horizons took of Ultima Thule...



There's a lot of oddness, including the fact that it appears to be a conjoined comet. Then New Horizons flew by the object aaand....









Why that should be is unclear to say the least, but it is interesting that one of the explanations for the weirdness of the recently departed Omuamua is that it was flat enough to be affected by solar pressure. Perhaps something causes objects on edge of interstellar space to flatten. 

In any event, it's NEAT!

 And, rarely does science give us such a straightforward and unambiguous lesson in the importance of perspective. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:19 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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