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Meet Ultima AND Thule: First high-resolution images of most distant object ever visited
The Daily Mail ^ | 1/2/19 | Cheyenne MacDonald

Posted on 01/02/2019 1:24:00 PM PST by Simon Green

Humanity has captured its first clear look at an object in the faraway Kuiper Belt.

NASA revealed the first images and science data from this week's historic flyby in a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Far from the blurry 'bowling pin' we saw with New Horizons' first look when it beamed its signal home early morning on January 1, the new images reveal Ultima Thule is snowman-shaped red world with two distinct lobes - one stacked atop the other.

This arrangement is what's known as a contact binary, the experts say – and, it’s now the first a spacecraft has ever explored.

Photographing Ultima Thule – and traveling more than four billion miles through space to get there – is a ‘technical success beyond anything ever attempted before in spaceflight,’ Principal Investigator Alan Stern said in a press conference Wednesday.

'It's really only the size of Washington D.C., and about as reflective as garden variety dirt,' Stern explained, noting that the object wasn't even known to the world prior to the summer of 2014.

'We were ultimately chasing it down in the dark at 32,000 miles per hour.'

The best images of the new batch were captured when New Horizons was about 17,000 miles (27, 000 kilometers) from Ultima Thule.

And, the pictures will only get better from here.

The scientists say the two lobes of Ultima Thule came together in a 'gentle' accretion process, with two objects bound together by each other's gravity.

The primitive world was 'born' this way, and did not evolve or deform through external processes to take on the strange shape, the team explains.

'New Horizons is like a time machine, taking us back to the birth of the solar system,'said Jeff Moore, New Horizons Geology and Geophysics team lead.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: coolspacestuff; nasa; newhorizons; notmyfault; ozone; sniff; ultimathule; zot
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To: TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed

That’s a mighty fine opus. I congratulate you. You flamed out in a truly spectacular fashion.

I’ve not seen a farewell opus like that in a long long time.

My hats off you you. You barking moonbat troll.


121 posted on 01/02/2019 8:24:00 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed

Sooooo... You said NASA is lying to us?
Last time I heard that from someone, they were claiming we were all gonna die from comet Elenin/Ison/asteroid yu55.
They also kept claiming bpearthwatch was telling the “TRUTH!™®©”


122 posted on 01/02/2019 8:30:17 PM PST by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Admin Moderator
Thanks for the zot of this obnoxious person, but they seem to have an alter ego posting on THIS thread that is just as obnoxious and deranged.

See what you think.

123 posted on 01/02/2019 8:32:24 PM PST by NoCmpromiz (John 14:6 is a non-pluralistic comment.)
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To: NoCmpromiz

Thanks for the callout. That idiot is zotted as well.


124 posted on 01/02/2019 8:40:16 PM PST by Admin Moderator
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To: Simon Green

[Ultima Thule]

As I said before, she was great in “Gattaca”.


125 posted on 01/02/2019 8:45:54 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: King Moonracer

Oh, stop it. We all know earthquakes are caused because American womens fashion shows too much breastage. Our imams told us so...


126 posted on 01/02/2019 8:49:10 PM PST by gnarledmaw (Hive minded liberals worship leaders, sovereign conservatives elect servants.)
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To: Admin Moderator

Thank you again.

Although the zot(s) have deprived me of a certain amount of entertainment, I’m sure I will survive.. ;-)


127 posted on 01/02/2019 9:13:07 PM PST by NoCmpromiz (John 14:6 is a non-pluralistic comment.)
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To: Windflier
Wow. It has a face!

It does, two faces.

I can just imagine the "alien conspiracy" folks will love this and are feverishly devising profitable ways of exploiting it. ;)

128 posted on 01/02/2019 10:22:52 PM PST by eldoradude (Do not buy into hype or urgency, they're trying to sell foolishness.)
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To: eldoradude; Windflier

“obviously it’s comet elenin coming back to kill us! We will be pulled into its immense gravity well as earthquake swarms increase and the poles shift three degrees!!1!”

Was just reading some threads from 2011 and 2013 when some were telling us we we’re all gonna die due to comets.


129 posted on 01/02/2019 10:34:32 PM PST by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: NoCmpromiz
Presumed alter ego is still posting this nonsense.

Not any more: "this account has been banned or suspended". Looks like this subject (not thread) netted a twofer.

130 posted on 01/02/2019 10:39:34 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!�)
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To: Darksheare
They also kept claiming bpearthwatch was telling the “TRUTH!™®©”

LOL! I had to look that up, wondering what the BP Gulf oil blowout/spill CYA cleanup people had to do with anything.

131 posted on 01/02/2019 10:45:24 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!�)
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To: vannrox

Oh yeah, and the photos will be interesting, if not beautiful, once they begin to arrive.


132 posted on 01/02/2019 11:04:18 PM PST by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: ApplegateRanch

It was quite.... interesting back then.
Supposed electrician BPearthwatch claimed he knew “information that NASA is trying to hide”, claimed some massive overarching conspiracy that only he uncovered, and that a secret base in Dulce had a subterranean war between reptoid brothers.
He partnered with pseudo-pastor Paul Begley for awhile.
And when we failed to die by comets, he just went on to other things that were going to kill us somehow.
The threads got amusing.
Was reminded of them by this.
Lol.

But still, be ever watchful of that British Petroleum!
;-)


133 posted on 01/02/2019 11:05:06 PM PST by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: BenLurkin; C19fan; Darksheare; Don Corleone; ETL; fieldmarshaldj; LibWhacker; ...
Thanks Simon Green.
The "snowman" completes a full rotation every 15 hours. © NASA/JHU-APL/SWRI

The

134 posted on 01/02/2019 11:24:31 PM PST by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: SunkenCiv

It’s also: Not My Fault™®©
;-)


135 posted on 01/02/2019 11:40:03 PM PST by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Diogenesis

Looks like a bust of the Pillsbury dough boy wearing a chef’s hat...


136 posted on 01/03/2019 12:16:50 AM PST by octex
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To: Darksheare
Was just reading some threads from 2011 and 2013 when some were telling us we we’re all gonna die due to comets.

Maybe, maybe not. There's a great deal of geologic evidence that points to the fact that Earth has suffered major bombardments from asteroids or comets before.

It's even theorized that one of those heavy bombardments ended the last ice age.

137 posted on 01/03/2019 12:22:09 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
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To: eldoradude

I still say that’s some fine welding there. Union work?


138 posted on 01/03/2019 12:23:41 AM PST by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
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To: Darksheare

‘Fess up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDRju_ffPnw


139 posted on 01/03/2019 12:26:53 AM PST by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
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To: SunkenCiv

That little chunk of rock is turning out to be interesting.
As clear as the image is from so far away, I can’t wait for the shots up close.


140 posted on 01/03/2019 12:29:17 AM PST by radu (God bless our military men and women, past and present)
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