New Horizons' faraway target is 'pretty pancake-like,' scientists discover

When New Horizons dipped in close to the distant object MU69, also known as Ultima Thule, just after midnight on New Year’s Day, it captured humanity’s first clear look at an object in the Kuiper Belt more than four billion miles from home.

The incredible images confirmed some predictions and dispelled others, revealing MU69 to be a snowman-shaped world with a rusty red hue that spins end-over-end like a propeller.

And, with New Horizons’ last look before pressing on with its mission, things have gotten even stranger.

A new image sequence from the spacecraft’s departing view of MU69 shows it isn’t actually made up of spheroidal segments, as first thought – instead, its two lobes are flat like pancakes.

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On Twitter, Berkeley planetary astronomer Alex Parker commented that the unusual space rock is ¿pretty pancake-like,¿ with one of its lobes resembling Saturn¿s flat moon, Atlas. ¿We¿ve never seen something like this orbiting the sun,' said lead investigator Alan Stern

On Twitter, Berkeley planetary astronomer Alex Parker commented that the unusual space rock is ‘pretty pancake-like,’ with one of its lobes resembling Saturn’s flat moon, Atlas. ‘We’ve never seen something like this orbiting the sun,' said lead investigator Alan Stern

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT ULTIMA THULE SO FAR? 

The NASA craft first captured images of the dual-lobed space rock, located more than a billion miles from Pluto, when it reached it on New Year's day.

It is about four billion miles from Earth and looks like a reddish snowman.

Based on the New Horizons observations so far, the scientists say Ultima has a ‘very regular’ rotation period, at about 15 hours.

But, it spins end-over-end like a propeller.

The latest images upended the initial assumptions, showing it isn’t actually made up of spheroidal segments, as first thought – instead, its two lobes are flat like pancakes.

‘This really is an incredible image sequence, taken by a spacecraft exploring a small world four billion miles away from Earth,’ said mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of Southwest Research Institute.

‘Nothing quite like this has ever been captured in imagery.’

On Twitter, Berkeley planetary astronomer Alex Parker commented that the unusual space rock is ‘pretty pancake-like,’ with one of its lobes resembling Saturn’s flat moon, Atlas.

New Horizons captured the last-look images on Jan. 1 at 12:42 a.m. EST, when it was 5,494 miles (8,862 kilometers) beyond the Kuiper Belt object.

Stars can be seen ‘blinking out’ in the background of an animation created from several images stitched together as

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