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Ultima Thule
Why is it in news?
- NASA shares detailed images taken by New Horizons of the distant celestial body called Ultima Thule .
- The first detailed images from the U.S. agency’s New Horizons mission allowed scientists to confidently determine the body was formed when two spheres, or “lobes,” slowly gravitated towards each other until they stuck together -a major scientific discovery.
Ultima Thule
- Ultima Thule, an icy celestial body, is aptly shaped like a giant snowman.
- The New Horizons spacecraft on 31 december 2018 flew past Ultima Thule, which was discovered via telescope in 2014 and is the farthest and potentially oldest cosmic body ever observed by a spacecraft.
- Before that flyby, the only image scientists had was a blurry one showing Ultima Thule’s oblong shape, resembling something like a bowling pin or a peanut.
- Sun’s rays are 1,600 times fainter on Ultima Thule than on the earth.
- The body completes its own rotation in about 15 hours.
- NASA dubbed the larger lobe Ultima, and the other, which is about three times smaller, Thule.
- 4.5 billion years ago a cloud of frozen pebbles began to join forces, gradually forming two bodies — Ultima and Thule.
Source
The Hindu, NASA