Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2019 January 3
                                      [2]
                          Ultima Thule Rotation Gif
Image Credit: NASA [3] , Johns Hopkins University APL [4] , Southwest Research
                                Institute [5]

Explanation: Ultima Thule [6] is the most distant world explored by a
spacecraft from Earth. In the dim light 6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun,
the New Horizons spacecraft captured these two frames 38 minutes apart as it
sped toward the Kuiper belt world [7]  on January 1 at 51,000 kilometers per
hour. A contact binary [8] , the two lobes of Ultima Thule rotate together
once every 15 hours or so. Shown as a blinking gif [9] , the rotation between
the frames produces a tantalizing 3D perspective of the most primitive world
ever seen. Dubbed separately by the science team Ultima and Thule, the larger
lobe Ultima, is about 19 kilometers in diameter. Smaller Thule is 14
kilometers across.

                      Tomorrow's picture: on the Far Side

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [21] (MTU [22] ) & Jerry Bonnell [23]
                                  (UMCP [24] )
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                           & Michigan Tech. U. [30]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1901/UT-blink_3d_a.gif
  [3] http://www.nasa.gov/
  [4] http://www.jhuapl.edu/
  [5] http://www.swri.edu/
  [6] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/ News-Article.php?page=20190103
  [7] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/kui... overview/
  [8] https://twitter.com/newhorizons2015
  [9] http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Im...
image.php?page=1&gallery_id=2&image_id=579
  [10] ap190102.html
  [11] archivepix.html
  [12] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [13] lib/aptree.html
  [14] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
  [15] calendar/allyears.html
  [16] /apod.rss
  [17] lib/edlinks.html
  [18] lib/about_apod.html
  [19] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [20] ap190104.html
  [21] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [22] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [23] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
  [24] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [25] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [26] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
  [27] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [28] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [29] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [30] http://www.mtu.edu/

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