Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Mon Feb 11 2019 10:48:17 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 February 11 [2] New Data: Ultima Thule Surprisingly Flat Illustration Credit: NASA [3] , JHU's APL [4] , SwRI [5] Explanation: Ultima Thule is not the object humanity thought that it was last month. When the robotic New Horizons spacecraft [6] zoomed past the distant asteroid Ultima Thule (officially 2014 MU69 [7] ) in early January, early images [8] showed two circular lobes [9] that when most simply extrapolated to 3D were thought to be, roughly, spheres. However, analyses of newly beamed-back images -- including many taken soon after closest approach [10] -- shows eclipsed stars re-appearing sooner than expected [11] . The only explanation possible is that this 30-km long Kuiper belt object [12] has a different 3D shape than believed only a few weeks ago. Specifically, as shown in the featured illustration [13] , it now appears that the larger lobe -- Ultima -- is more similar to a fluffy pancake [14] than a sphere, while the smaller lobe -- Thule -- resembles a dented walnut [15] . The remaining uncertainty in the outlines are shown by the dashed blue lines. The new shape information indicates that gravity -- which (link)contracts more massive bodies into spheres -- played perhaps less of a role in contouring the lobes of Ultima Thule [16] than previously thought. The New Horizons spacecraft [17] continued on to Ultima Thule after passing Pluto [18] in mid-2015. New data and images [19] are still being received. Tomorrow's picture: moon jet ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [20] | Archive [21] | Submissions [22] | Index [23] | Search [24] | Calendar [25] | RSS [26] | Education [27] | About APOD [28] | Discuss [29] | > [30] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [31] (MTU [32] ) & Jerry Bonnell [33] (UMCP [34] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [35] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [36] A service of: ASD [37] at NASA [38] / GSFC [39] & Michigan Tech. U. [40] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1902/MU69Flatter_NewHorizons_1920.jpg [3] https://www.nasa.gov/ [4] https://www.jhuapl.edu/ [5] https://www.swri.org/ [6] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/spacecraft/index.html [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(486958)_2014_MU69 [8] ap190103.html [9] ap190129.html [10] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190208 [11] https://i.imgflip.com/eyvnj.jpg [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt [13] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/ image.php?gallery_id=2&image_id=590 [14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake [15] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Juglans_regia_Echte_Walnussfrucht_2.jpg [16] https://www.sciencealert.com/ we-ve-never-seen-something-like-this-orbiting-the-sun-ultima-thule-is-still- weird [17] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft.php#Systems-and-Components [18] ap150831.html [19] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190115 [20] ap190210.html [21] archivepix.html [22] lib/apsubmit2015.html [23] lib/aptree.html [24] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [25] calendar/allyears.html [26] /apod.rss [27] lib/edlinks.html [28] lib/about_apod.html [29] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190211 [30] ap190212.html [31] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [32] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [33] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [34] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [35] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [36] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [37] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [38] https://www.nasa.gov/ [39] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [40] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .