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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday August 09 2017, @07:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the or-just-an-extreme-prolate-spheroid dept.

2014 MU69, which New Horizons will fly by on January 1, 2019, appears to have an elongated shape or may be comprised of two objects:

Based on the occultation data, 2014 MU69 definitely appears to have an odd shape. In a press release, NASA officials said that it's either football shaped or a type of object called a contact binary. The size of MU69 or its components also can be determined from these data. It appears to be no more than 20 miles (30 km) long, or, if a binary, each about 9-12 miles (15-20 km) in diameter.

By comparison, Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko consists of a large lobe measuring about 4.1 × 3.3 × 1.8 km and a small lobe of about 2.6 × 2.3 × 1.8 km.


Original Submission

Related Stories

New Horizons Flyby Plan Finalized; Pluto Features Named 6 comments

The New Horizons spacecraft will fly closer to the Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69 than it did to Pluto in 2015. 2014 MU69 is thought to be a binary pair or contact binary:

New Horizons' highest-resolution camera, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), has imaged details as small as 600 feet (183 meters) in diameter on Pluto's surface; however, on MU69, it will be able to resolve details down to a diameter of 230 feet (70 meters).

"We're planning to fly closer to MU69 than to Pluto to get even higher resolution imagery and other datasets. The science should be spectacular," emphasized mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado.

[...] Observations of the KBO conducted in July when it passed in front of a star suggest that it could be a binary system composed of two objects or a single object with two lobes.

The International Astronomical Union has announced names for 14 features (such as craters, valleys, and mountain ranges) on Pluto:

These include Tombaugh Regio for the "heart" feature on Pluto's surface, Sputnik Planitia for the icy plain on the left side of the heart, Burney crater for a crater west of the heart, Voyager Terra for a region northwest of the heart, and several more.

[...] "The approved designations honor many people and space missions who paved the way for the historic exploration of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the farthest worlds ever explored," Stern said.

Source: spaceflightinsider.com

Previously: Occultations of New Horizons' Next Target (2014 MU69) Observed
New Horizons Target 2014 MU69 May be a "Contact Binary"


Original Submission

2014 MU69 Not a Good Enough Name for NASA: Help Name the Next New Horizons Target 25 comments

The next flyby target of the New Horizons mission (the first spacecraft to visit Pluto) is 2014 MU69. NASA is asking the public to help name it. The name(s) are unlikely to be submitted to the International Astronomical Union before the flyby on January 1, 2019, because scientists are still unsure if 2014 MU69 consists of one or more objects.

To prevent a Boaty McBoatface redux, the New Horizons team is allowing you to pick from a number of options or submit your own name for consideration by December 1st. The poll is only to gauge support; they will decide which name(s) to submit to the IAU (which could also reject the name(s)). And the binary (trinary?) status of 2014 MU69 is likely to affect the name(s) chosen. The names currently being considered are:

  • Año Nuevo ("New Year" in Spanish)
  • Camalor (fictional city in the Kuiper Belt)
  • Chomolungma, Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest in Tibet and Nepal)
  • Kibo, Mawenzi, Shira (peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro)
  • Mjölnir (Thor's hammer)
  • Pangu (from Chinese mythology, emerged from yin and yang)
  • Peanut, Almond, Cashew (shapes for small bodies)
  • Pluck & Persistence (traits of New Horizons)
  • Sagittarius (constellation behind MU69/mythical centaur)
  • Uluru (Ayers Rock, largest rock on Earth, an "island mountain")
  • Z'ha'dum (fictional planet at the edge of the galaxy)

Also at CNET.

Previously: Occultations of New Horizons' Next Target (2014 MU69) Observed
New Horizons Target 2014 MU69 May be a "Contact Binary"
New Horizons Flyby Plan Finalized; Pluto Features Named


Original Submission

Tiny Moon Possibly Orbiting 2014 MU69 7 comments

2014 MU69, which is still thought to be a contact binary or binary object, may also have a tiny moon (although additional observations are needed):

The object, known as 2014 MU69, is small, no more than 20 miles wide [30-40 km], but planetary scientists hope that it will turn out to be an ancient and pristine fragment from the earliest days of the solar system.

The moon, if it exists, might be about three miles [~5 km] wide, circling at a distance of about 120 miles [~190 km] from MU69, completing an orbit every two to four weeks, estimated Marc W. Buie, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

He cautioned that the findings were tentative. "The story could change next week," he said.

Dr. Buie and others working on NASA's New Horizons mission provided an update on Tuesday at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union meeting here.

New Horizons is set to fly closer to 2014 MU69 than it did to Pluto (~3,500 km vs. 12,472 km). Flyby or collision course?

Voting for a possible new name for the object has been closed. Mjölnir (Thor's hammer) got the most votes. That name could fit the shape of 2014 MU69 somewhat.

Also at Sky & Telescope, Science News, and BBC.


Original Submission

New Horizons Captures the Farthest Image From Earth Ever Made 10 comments

New Horizons has taken images of the "Wishing Well" star cluster and the Kuiper belt objects 2012 HZ84 and 2012 HE85 using its LORRI instrument. New Horizons was over 6.12 billion kilometers (40.9 AU) away from Earth when it took the images (archive), beating the previous record by Voyager 1:

New Horizons was even farther from home than NASA's Voyager 1 when it captured the famous "Pale Blue Dot" image of Earth. That picture was part of a composite of 60 images looking back at the solar system, on Feb. 14, 1990, when Voyager was 3.75 billion miles (6.06 billion kilometers, or about 40.5 astronomical units [AU]) from Earth. Voyager 1's cameras were turned off shortly after that portrait, leaving its distance record unchallenged for more than 27 years.

[...] During its extended mission in the Kuiper Belt, which began in 2017, New Horizons is aiming to observe at least two-dozen other KBOs, dwarf planets and "Centaurs," former KBOs in unstable orbits that cross the orbits of the giant planets. Mission scientists study the images to determine the objects' shapes and surface properties, and to check for moons and rings. The spacecraft also is making nearly continuous measurements of the plasma, dust and neutral-gas environment along its path.

Previously: New Horizons Measures the Brightness of Galaxies Before Going Into Hibernation
New Horizons Target 2014 MU69 May be a "Contact Binary"
New Horizons Flyby Plan Finalized; Pluto Features Named
Tiny Moon Possibly Orbiting 2014 MU69


Original Submission

New Horizons Spacecraft Will Take a "Pale Blue Dot" Photo in 2019 14 comments

Recently, the New Horizons spacecraft took the furthest images ever made from Earth. But they weren't of Earth. That could change in 2019:

Sometime after January 2019, New Horizons, the spacecraft that brought us photos of the heart-shaped terrain on Pluto, will turn back toward Earth. The probe's camera, the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager, or LORRI for short, will start snapping away. Nearly three decades after the original, humanity will get another "Pale Blue Dot."

"We've been talking about it for years," says Andy Cheng of the plan to take another 'Pale Blue Dot' image. Cheng is a scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory and the principal investigator for LORRI.

It's a risky move. The attempt requires pointing LORRI close enough to the sun so that objects in the darkness are illuminated, but not so close that sunlight damages or destroys the camera. "But we're going to do it anyway, for the same reason as before," Cheng says. "It's just such a great thing to try."

The photo shoot will take considerable coordination. "All activities on the spacecraft need to be choreographed in elaborate detail and then checked and checked again," Cheng says. "Taking a LORRI image involves more than just LORRI—the spacecraft needs to point the camera in the right direction, lorri needs to be operated, the image data needs to be put in the right place and then accessed and transmitted to Earth, which requires more maneuvers of the spacecraft, all of which needs to happen on a spacecraft almost 4 billion miles away."

New Horizons will fly by 2014 MU69 on January 1, 2019. It will take about 18 months to send back all the data from the flyby.

Related: Occultations of New Horizons' Next Target (2014 MU69) Observed
New Horizons Target 2014 MU69 May be a "Contact Binary"


Original Submission

One Last Stellar Occultation of 2014 MU69 to be Observed Before Jan. 1 New Horizons Flyby 3 comments

NASA's New Horizons team will again attempt observations of a stellar occultation of 2014 MU69, provisionally nicknamed Ultima Thule. Previous observations made when the object passed in front of a background star suggested that it was a contact binary and may have a small moon:

The goal is to learn as much as possible about 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule, which New Horizons will zoom past on Jan. 1, 2019. "This occultation will give us hints about what to expect at Ultima Thule and help us refine our flyby plans," New Horizons occultation-event leader Marc Buie, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement.

This is not the mission team's first shadow rodeo. Last summer, scientists traveled to Argentina and South Africa for occultation observations; the Argentina crew hit the jackpot, gathering data that helped set the planned flyby distance at 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers).

[...] Ultima Thule lies about 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) beyond Pluto, which New Horizons famously flew by in July 2015. Scientists think Ultima Thule is about 20 miles (32 km) across if it's a single object; if it's two bodies, each component is probably 9 miles to 12 miles (15 to 21 km) long.

An occultation was used to determine that the dwarf planet Haumea may have a ring system in addition to its two known moons.


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Wednesday August 09 2017, @07:46PM (2 children)

    by Some call me Tim (5819) on Wednesday August 09 2017, @07:46PM (#551262)

    How many of you will laugh when the first pictures come back and it looks like truck nuts?

    --
    Questioning science is how you do science!
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @07:51PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @07:51PM (#551266)

      Or boobies.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:10PM

        by wonkey_monkey (279) on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:10PM (#551300) Homepage

        On our journey back to Earth, we have encountered many strange and bizarre things. Only last month, we came across a moon shaped exactly like Felicity Kendal's bottom.

        We flew around that one a couple of times.

        -Red Dwarf

        --
        systemd is Roko's Basilisk
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:38PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:38PM (#551315)

    How many more nails do we need in the coffin of the idea that comets are "dirty snowballs"?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:55PM (#551323)

      chocolate starfish. i win.

    • (Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday August 09 2017, @10:25PM

      by Arik (4543) on Wednesday August 09 2017, @10:25PM (#551333) Journal
      You don't think contact binaries can be formed from dirty snowballs?
      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
  • (Score: 1) by tedd on Thursday August 10 2017, @02:05AM (3 children)

    by tedd (1691) on Thursday August 10 2017, @02:05AM (#551410)

    Count the number of times the word 'comet' is said in the summary, or indeed whatever this target is. I'll wait..

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday August 10 2017, @02:28AM (2 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday August 10 2017, @02:28AM (#551418) Journal

      2014 MU69 has been compared to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko since before there was any evidence of it being a contact binary:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2014_MU69_size_comparison_01.jpg [wikipedia.org]

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 1) by tedd on Thursday August 10 2017, @04:14AM (1 child)

        by tedd (1691) on Thursday August 10 2017, @04:14AM (#551444)

        You're not getting it. What the F are they talking about? It's just a bunch of names and numbers..

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @11:43AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @11:43AM (#551567)

          The names and numbers all mean something:

          When 2014 MU69 was first observed, it was labelled 1110113Y,[15] and nicknamed "11", for short.[5][3] Its existence as a potential target of the New Horizons probe was announced by NASA in October 2014[16][17] and it was unofficially designated PT1 ("Potential Target 1"). Its official designation, 2014 MU69, was assigned by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) in March 2015 after sufficient orbital information was gathered.[3] After further observations pinning down its orbit, it was officially given the permanent minor planet number 486958 in MPC 103886 on 12 March 2017.

          The name 2014 MU69 is a provisional designation and indicates that it was the 1745th object (("U" = 20) + ("69" × 25)) discovered between 16 and 30 June 2014 ("2014", "M").

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%28486958%29_2014_MU69 [wikipedia.org]

          Apparently it is a cubewano, but there is no formal definition of cubewano so I don't know if they can also be comets or not:

          There is no official definition of 'cubewano' or 'classical KBO'. However, the terms are normally used to refer to objects free from significant perturbation from Neptune, thereby excluding KBOs in orbital resonance with Neptune (resonant trans-Neptunian objects).

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Kuiper_belt_object [wikipedia.org]

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