Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Fri Jan 04 2019 10:49:40 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2019 January 3 [2] Ultima Thule Rotation Gif Image Credit: NASA [3] , Johns Hopkins University APL [4] , Southwest Research Institute [5] Explanation: Ultima Thule [6] is the most distant world explored by a spacecraft from Earth. In the dim light 6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, the New Horizons spacecraft captured these two frames 38 minutes apart as it sped toward the Kuiper belt world [7] on January 1 at 51,000 kilometers per hour. A contact binary [8] , the two lobes of Ultima Thule rotate together once every 15 hours or so. Shown as a blinking gif [9] , the rotation between the frames produces a tantalizing 3D perspective of the most primitive world ever seen. Dubbed separately by the science team Ultima and Thule, the larger lobe Ultima, is about 19 kilometers in diameter. Smaller Thule is 14 kilometers across. Tomorrow's picture: on the Far Side ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [10] | Archive [11] | Submissions [12] | Index [13] | Search [14] | Calendar [15] | RSS [16] | Education [17] | About APOD [18] | Discuss [19] | > [20] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [21] (MTU [22] ) & Jerry Bonnell [23] (UMCP [24] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [25] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [26] A service of: ASD [27] at NASA [28] / GSFC [29] & Michigan Tech. U. [30] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1901/UT-blink_3d_a.gif [3] http://www.nasa.gov/ [4] http://www.jhuapl.edu/ [5] http://www.swri.edu/ [6] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/ News-Article.php?page=20190103 [7] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/kuiper-belt/ overview/ [8] https://twitter.com/newhorizons2015 [9] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/ image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=579 [10] ap190102.html [11] archivepix.html [12] lib/apsubmit2015.html [13] lib/aptree.html [14] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [15] calendar/allyears.html [16] /apod.rss [17] lib/edlinks.html [18] lib/about_apod.html [19] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190103 [20] ap190104.html [21] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [22] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [23] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [24] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [25] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [26] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [27] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [28] https://www.nasa.gov/ [29] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [30] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .