2014 MU69 has two nearly-spherical lobes and is a contact binary. The collision between the two lobes happened at a low relative velocity, causing little damage to the resulting object. The "neck" between the lobes contains brighter material which appears to be dust that has settled down the slopes that run towards the point of contact.
[Added BBC link -ed]
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:53PM (6 children)
A picture is worth 1000 words, but why get a link to that when I can get all 53 words of this contextless summary.
(Probably something's just broke. Can an editor fix it, please?)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday January 02 2019, @10:59PM (1 child)
What a lovely wikipedia URL (sarcasm implied)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(486958)_2014_MU69 [wikipedia.org]
The conspiracy theorists are worked up about this one showing a "Mayan Carved Face" on the little one, kinda like that face on Mars that was being covered up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(486958)_2014_MU69#/media/File:Ultima_Thule_original_vs_sharpened.jpg [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday January 03 2019, @12:42AM
It looks like the Spanish Painting of Jesus. The one they turned into Modern Art. Some people laughed. Some cried. And so many people said, "oh, it doesn't look like Jesus, it looks horrible -- they hired a Retard." And possibly they did -- the I.Q. test will prove it, one way or the other. But, it turned out to be a very smart move. Because that Painting is now a HUGE tourist draw!!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 02 2019, @11:23PM (3 children)
I subbed it during the live press conference.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 02 2019, @11:40PM (1 child)
I can appreciate the haste and how that'd lead to the lack of links, but you could have mentioned the context that there was a press release. Sorry if I'm being demanding, I know subbing is not paid work or anything. But it seemed particularly low quality this time.
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Thursday January 03 2019, @12:09AM
I rather applaud timely reporting, it isn't often I read something first on SN.
Given that the first image from the flyby was already on the frontpage, I was eagerly awaiting this nicer photo, I wasn't personally lacking context. Without that context it would have been confusing as hell.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pkrasimirov on Thursday January 03 2019, @12:14AM
We need a mod +1 Thank you.