In early January 2019 space probe New Horizons flew past asteroid Ultima Thule — the most distant object ever studied by humans. Shot with the camera photos are still transmitted to the Ground, and each time their resolution and detail rise. Recently astronomers got a new photo which is clearly visible to the heavy holes and the strange grooves on the surface of the object. Scientists already have a clue how they were formed.
The photo was taken at a distance of 6700 km from the object for comparison, the last photo was taken when the machine was separated on a 17 000 km Through a wide-angle camera MVIC, resolution, frame made impressive 135 meters per pixel. Already abundantly clear that the Ultima Thule — a rather lumpy object, dotted with small pits with a diameter of up to 700 meters. It has the shape of a dumbbell, and on the smaller of the sides have a particularly large recess with a width of about 7 km — he even received its own name “Tula.”
Also noticeable “seams”, and the most striking of these is the bridge between the two objects. The researchers suggest that the irregularities on the surface was formed by impacts from other space objects. Anyway, they have no proof of this hypothesis awaits them in front of careful work.
It is noteworthy that the photo was transmitted to Earth with a delay due to interference caused by the Sun. Researchers at the time stopped the operation and waited until the connection is restored. At the moment, is the clear picture of the object, but then they will be even better.
You interesting news of science and technology, but you still haven’t subscribed to our channel in Yandex.Zen? It’s time to fix it — sign up now and don’t forget to read the exclusive content that we post only there!