SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
New Horizons' Newest and Best-Yet View of Ultima Thule
Obtained with the wide-angle Multicolor Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) component of New Horizons' Ralph instrument, this image was taken when the KBO was 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers) from the spacecraft, at 05:26 UT (12:26 a.m. EST) on Jan. 1 – just seven minutes before closest approach. With an original resolution of 440 feet (135 meters) per pixel, the image was stored in the spacecraft's data memory and transmitted to Earth on Jan. 18-19. Scientists then sharpened the image to enhance fine detail. (This process – known as deconvolution – also amplifies the graininess of the image when viewed at high contrast.)
The oblique lighting of this image reveals new topographic details along the day/night boundary, or terminator, near the top. These details include numerous small pits up to about 0.4 miles (0.7 kilometers) in diameter. The large circular feature, about 4 miles (7 kilometers) across, on the smaller of the two lobes, also appears to be a deep depression. Not clear is whether these pits are impact craters or features resulting from other processes, such as "collapse pits" or the ancient venting of volatile materials.
MVIC (Ralph) has a lower resolution than LORRI, which should have taken its best images at around 30-35 meters per pixel.
Also at Spaceflight Now, BBC, and TechCrunch.
Previously: Final Planning for the New Horizons Flyby of 2014 MU69 (Ultima Thule) Underway
New Horizons Survives Flyby, Begins Sending Back Data
New Images Reveal Structure, Color, and Features of 2014 MU69 (Ultima Thule)
Animation Shows Rotation of 2014 MU69 (Ultima Thule)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @04:35AM (3 children)
Looks like what a formerly liquid spinning clump would coalesce into.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @05:38AM
"A spinning drop of liquid that is magnetically levitated can exhibit many stable equilibrium states depending on the speed it spins at. For a neutrally charged spinning drop of liquid, an ellipsoidal or dumbbell-shape configuration is often observed below some critical angular frequency."
https://www.sfu.ca/physics/newsevents/phys-events/2017/sep/event8.html [www.sfu.ca]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @07:23PM (1 child)
Air bubbles. In space. Sure.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 27 2019, @07:54PM
Obviously there can be gas trapped inside or between the current surface and a former "shell" (of ice?) from when it was much hotter.