UPDATE:2014 MU69 is now officially namedArrokoth
A few weeks after itshistoric flyby , NASA ’s New Horizons has been easy but surely send off data back to Earth . The missionary work team has now released the in effect figure of speech yet of Ultima Thule , the furthest humanity human beings has ever explore .
The newfangled range was snapped just seven mo before closest approach at a space of about 6,700 kilometer ( 4,200 miles ) . The close approach was at almost half that distance when the ballistic capsule was be active at 14 kilometre per 2d ( 32,000 miles per hour ) .
The new range has a resolution of 135 meters ( 440 invertebrate foot ) per pixel and it finally usher more intricate details of the two - lobe object . Ultima Thule , technically known as object 2014 MU69 , has been revealed to have a variety of light and dark patches , which are currently of unknown extraction . It is particularly exciting just how bright the “ neck ” joining the two lobes flavor .
The image also shows small depressions on the exterminator , the 24-hour interval / Nox boundary , each roughly 700 meters ( 0.4 miles ) across . The minor lobe has a slump 10 time larger . The panel is still out on whether these “ dimples ” are actual craters or depression created by other geologic process .
" This unexampled ikon is starting to reveal differences in the geological character of the two lobes of Ultima Thule , and is presenting us with new mysteries as well , " main investigator Alan Stern , from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder , Colorado , said in astatement .
" Over the next calendar month , there will be good color and better resolution image that we hope will help unknot the many mysteries of Ultima Thule . "
Ultima Thule is located in the Kuiper Belt , the region of the Solar System beyond the reach of Neptune , which prolong out up to 18 billion kilometre ( 11 billion miles ) from the Sun . Ultima Thule itself is 6.49 billion km ( 4 billion miles ) from the Sun – as far from Pluto ( New Horizons ' previous prey ) as Saturn is from Earth . The object gets its moniker from Thule , the ancient Greek and Romance name for what was then thought to be the most northerly area in the world , identified to be Iceland , Norway or the Shetland Isles .
On its flyby , New Horizons collected information about this distant world ’s geomorphology , geology , and composition . The vast amount of datum gathered is lento being transmitted back to Earth at the snail stop number of 500 bits per second . The full dataset will be download by September 2020 .
