APOD: Passing Asteroid Arrokoth (2019 Nov 18)

[APOD Robot]

Passing Asteroid Arrokoth

Explanation: What would it look like to pass asteroid Arrokoth? The robotic New Horizons spacecraft zoomed past Arrokoth in January, 3.5 years after the spacecraft passed Pluto. If this object's name doesn't sound familiar, that may be because the distant, double-lobed, Kuiper-belt object was unofficially dubbed Ultima Thule until recently receiving its official name: 486958 Arrokoth. The featured black and white video animates images of Arrokoth taken by New Horizons at different angles as it zoomed by. The video clearly shows Arrokoth's two lobes, and even hints that the larger lobe is significantly flattened. New Horizons found that Arrokoth is different from any known asteroid in the inner Solar System and is likely composed of two joined planetesimals -- the building blocks of planets as they existed billions of years ago. New Horizons continues to speed out of our Solar System gaining about three additional Earth-Sun separations every year.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[www]

Same Rock different Name.

Actually I think I've heard it put this way once: A rock by any other name is still a rock.

(Now when will they finally get around to renaming Uranus ?)

[downstarr]

This is a another dumb video. Thanks for a waste of 1 second!

[heehaw]

It is an almost inconceivable privilege for us humans, stuck here on Earth, to be able to see, with our own eyes, that amazing fragment of the early solar system, shivering in the far far outskirts of our solar system! What a joy to be a human with the sensibility to realize the breadth and depth of our human experience, and also to have a NASA (and an APL!) that can deliver such a wonderful treasure to us. Oh yes, and an APOD, too! Go, Human Race, GO!

[JohnD]

Thnak to the Wiki, we learn that, "Arrokoth was named for a word glossed as "sky", from the Powhatan language of the Tidewater region of Virginia and Maryland.[20] The pronunciation and meaning of the word, however, are not entirely certain, as the language became extinct in the late 18th century and little was recorded of it. "
Thnak you, New Horizons team - At least we can pronounce it how the Hell we like, with no arguments.
John

[Barry]

Same Rock different Name.

Actually I think I've heard it put this way once: A rock by any other name is still a rock.

(Now when will they finally get around to renaming Uranus ?)

They are getting tired of the jokes so they will be renaming it “Urectum”.

[NCTom]

I remember seeing these photos before and thinking how much Arrokoth looks like conglomerate rocks I picked up in stream beds. Gravity in both cases (with a little help from a sticky matrix) makes for strong compression - conglomerate rocks, black holes, and everything in between.

[orin stepanek]

Oh my! I wonder; does this mean Ultima Thule now has an alias; Arrokoth?

[sillyworm 2]

Ultimately Arrokoth

[neufer]

• Given the shape & rotation of Arrokoth it could just as well have been called Tomahawk:

<<A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe from North America, traditionally resembling a hatchet with a straight shaft. Tomahawks were general-purpose tools used by Native Americans and later the European colonials with whom they traded, and often employed as a hand-to-hand or a thrown weapon. The name comes from Powhatan tamahaac, derived from the Proto-Algonquian root *temah- "to cut off by tool". Algonquian cognates include Lenape təmahikan, Malecite-Passamaquoddy tomhikon, and Abenaki demahigan, all of which mean "axe".>>

<<The Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is a long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile that is primarily used by the United States Navy and Royal Navy in ship- and submarine-based land-attack operations. The U.S. Navy launched the BGM-109 Tomahawk project, hiring James H. Walker and a team of scientists at the Applied Physics Laboratory near Laurel, Maryland.>>

[zendae1]

It is an almost inconceivable privilege for us humans, stuck here on Earth, to be able to see, with our own eyes, that amazing fragment of the early solar system, shivering in the far far outskirts of our solar system! What a joy to be a human with the sensibility to realize the breadth and depth of our human experience, and also to have a NASA (and an APL!) that can deliver such a wonderful treasure to us. Oh yes, and an APOD, too! Go, Human Race, GO!

And what a juxtaposition - certainly not superposition! - of perceptions between yours and the view au dessus de toi.

Well, at the risk of looking daft >>> it occurs to me that the overall presentation of this object is so odd it looks deliberate, not accidental. Now *there's* an interesting take on the message-in-a-bottle, and to your chosen ilk of recipient!

[orin stepanek]

an interesting read about how Arrokoth's shape was figured before Horizons got there!http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/PI- ... 08_08_2017

[BDanielMayfield]

It is an almost inconceivable privilege for us humans, stuck here on Earth, to be able to see, with our own eyes, that amazing fragment of the early solar system, shivering in the far far outskirts of our solar system! What a joy to be a human with the sensibility to realize the breadth and depth of our human experience, and also to have a NASA (and an APL!) that can deliver such a wonderful treasure to us. Oh yes, and an APOD, too! Go, Human Race, GO!

And what a juxtaposition - certainly not superposition! - of perceptions between yours and the view au dessus de toi.

Well, at the risk of looking daft >>> it occurs to me that the overall presentation of this object is so odd it looks deliberate, not accidental. Now *there's* an interesting take on the message-in-a-bottle, and to your chosen ilk of recipient!

Consider what might have happened if this contact binary object had been showing us it's flat edge, or if one lobe had been behind the other at the time a second target for New Horizons was being searched for; it would have been dimmer, and so might have escaped detection and/or selection as NH's next target after the Pluto system. So there's a selection bias that could have worked in its favor due to its face on orientation.

Bruce

[bystander]

viewtopic.php?p=296956#p296956

[BDanielMayfield]

I remember seeing these photos before and thinking how much Arrokoth looks like conglomerate rocks I picked up in stream beds. Gravity in both cases (with a little help from a sticky matrix) makes for strong compression - conglomerate rocks, black holes, and everything in between.

Yes, they do resemble conglomerate, but the gravity couldn't have been that strong for such small bodies. Particularly so for the smaller pieces of each main lobe. I would guess that once two or more objects freeze together this far from the sun ices would tend to build up fastest at the area(s) of contact, filling up the gaps over time.

Bruce

[Ann]

Same Rock different Name.

Actually I think I've heard it put this way once: A rock by any other name is still a rock.

But with a harder name to remember this time.

Ann

[neufer]

Same Rock different Name.

Actually I think I've heard it put this way once:
A rock by any other name is still a rock.

But with a harder name to remember this time.

• Arrokoth rolleth off the tongue.
  
  Arrokoth, Arrokoth, a rock
  Aroseth, aroseth, a rose

[MarkBour]

So which lobe is Arro and which is Koth?

[BDanielMayfield]

So which lobe is Arro and which is Koth?

I hope that Ultima and Thule can be retained for the two major parts. It would be fitting, as these two lobes have been called that in scientific literature extensively.

[Guest]

Consider what might have happened if this contact binary object had been showing us it's flat edge, or if one lobe had been behind the other at the time a second target for New Horizons was being searched for; it would have been dimmer, and so might have escaped detection and/or selection as NH's next target after the Pluto system. So there's a selection bias that could have worked in its favor due to its face on orientation.

Bruce

Although I'd offer that most visual aspects of this would remain a compelling curiosity. But alas space is too empty, light too slow, for any meaningful communication across the cosmos. It'll have to be done by smart fellows somewhere who have quite a handle on something perhaps like applied entanglement mechanics lol...

[MarkBour]

So which lobe is Arro and which is Koth?

I hope that Ultima and Thule can be retained for the two major parts. It would be fitting, as these two lobes have been called that in scientific literature extensively.

Yes, Bruce, that would be a good thing! My tongue-in-cheek comment was sort of lamenting that we are being told to give up the earlier name, but your answer is satisfying. That would allow us to continue to refer to Ultima and Thule along with Arrokoth. (And it will be handy for the Arrokoth postal service some day.)