NASA reveals images of distant ‘Snowman’ shaped Ultima Thule
  • 5 years ago
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft yielded its first close-up pictures of the most distant celestial object. The icy object that looks like a snowman was dubbed Ultima Thule. The object consists of two fused-together spheres, one three times bigger than the other. Based on early images it looked like a bowling pin but a new consensus emerged with new images. New Horizons Principal Investigator, Alan Stern said, “Let me say that bowling pin is gone. It's a snowman. If it's anything at all. And you know we have to start thinking about some provisional names and particularly we need names right up front for the two lobes so that we can refer to them individually. Now being scientists were not all that creative with words so we've decided to do is name one lobe Ultima and the other Thule.”