New Horizons' Departure Images from Ultima Thule - It's a Pancake and Walnut not a Snowman

Stringing 14 of these images into a short departure movie, New Horizons scientists can confirm that the two sections (or "lobes") of Ultima Thule are not spherical. The larger lobe, nicknamed "Ultima," more closely resembles a giant pancake and the smaller lobe, nicknamed "Thule," is shaped like a dented walnut.

New Horizons' Evocative Farewell Glance at Ultima Thule

The fact Ultima Thule is not spherical is being hailed as one of it's major discoveries. There are stars in the images and that helped scientists make out the shape of Thule and Ultima as they blocked the light.

There should be a lot more images to come, lets hope a lot better images too.

There was a question of how the two objects became connected but the new data amplifies that question , the curious object just got curiouser.
Here's the NASA animation embeded.


Cool thing.

a reply to: gortex

I wonder if UT was somehow s t r e t c h e d out by the gravity of something else back in its ancient infancy? Intuitively we'd expect the two lobes to be dumpy and pushed down (from the initial connection) rather than this elongated formation. Or it wasn't always frozen and the shape is from spinning on its own axis many thousands of aeons ago.

It reminded me of Richard Hoagland and I'm feeling nostalgic. Remember when he had Phobos as a clear space probe with clearly riveted sections? I miss all that and hopped over to Enterprise Mission only to find he hasn't (yet!!) worked his magic on the Ultima Thule object. I even miss the bracketed exclamation marks and...lots (!)...of (!!)...ellipsis.

a reply to: Kandinsky

At this early stage of our Cosmic awakening scientists are exploring the possibilities of building a Space Station inside a giant Asteroid , it's only a small hop from that to building a spaceship inside an Asteroid.

This crazy idea might just be possible, according to a new study from astrophysicists at the University of Vienna in Austria, who applied some advanced gravity models to a hypothetical asteroid measuring 500 metres by 390 metres (1,640 feet by 1,280 feet).

"Loads resulting from centrifugal forces... [make] a space station in the cavern of a mined asteroid feasible," write the researchers, though there are a lot of unknowns here – the right dimensions and materials would need to be chosen, and the asteroid would need to be strong enough to support a station.
www.sciencealert.com...

I think it probably makes more sense to use the available resources that are already out there rather than build a superstructure in space then insert what you need into that to create an interstellar space ship , I guess the possibility is there for another civilisation to take the same step ... maybe.

a reply to: gortex

One of my favourite Charles Fort quotes is on comets:

Luminous fleas on a vast black dog—in popular impressions, there is no realization of the extent to which this solar system is flea-bitten.

Us hitching a ride on an asteroid reminds me of fleas on a dog's back. The article is interesting like many futurist imaginings can be. They don't mention the length of orbit their hypothetical asteroid would require. There's no point mining an asteroid that won't be back in local space for a few centuries.

I suppose there are Lagrangian bodies and they might be worth considering. I'm just throwing the idea out there and haven't checked lol (waits for drive-by slam on the 'dumbest post evah').

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: gortex

I wonder if UT was somehow s t r e t c h e d out by the gravity of something else back in its ancient infancy? Intuitively we'd expect the two lobes to be dumpy and pushed down (from the initial connection) rather than this elongated formation. Or it wasn't always frozen and the shape is from spinning on its own axis many thousands of aeons ago.

It reminded me of Richard Hoagland and I'm feeling nostalgic. Remember when he had Phobos as a clear space probe with clearly riveted sections? I miss all that and hopped over to Enterprise Mission only to find he hasn't (yet!!) worked his magic on the Ultima Thule object. I even miss the bracketed exclamation marks and...lots (!)...of (!!)...ellipsis.

Remember the THEMIS image that he said someone from NASA released to him. It had been over processed and had blocky image artifacts that were said to be a buried city on Mars. O the good ol days

originally posted by: LookingAtMars

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: gortex

I wonder if UT was somehow s t r e t c h e d out by the gravity of something else back in its ancient infancy? Intuitively we'd expect the two lobes to be dumpy and pushed down (from the initial connection) rather than this elongated formation. Or it wasn't always frozen and the shape is from spinning on its own axis many thousands of aeons ago.

It reminded me of Richard Hoagland and I'm feeling nostalgic. Remember when he had Phobos as a clear space probe with clearly riveted sections? I miss all that and hopped over to Enterprise Mission only to find he hasn't (yet!!) worked his magic on the Ultima Thule object. I even miss the bracketed exclamation marks and...lots (!)...of (!!)...ellipsis.

Remember the THEMIS image that he said someone from NASA released to him. It had been over processed and had blocky image artifacts that were said to be a buried city on Mars. O the good ol days

Remember when Hoagland said that the layered deposits on Mars were tiny martian apartments? www.enterprisemission.com...

"Clown" is the best term I could apply to Hoagland.

a reply to: wildespace

The clown who talks you into going in to see the 2 headed lady, if were going with circus people