Starship Asterisk*

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 1:29 am

MarkBour wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2019 10:15 pm 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.

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 4:02 pm

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

MarkBour wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2019 10:15 pm So which lobe is Arro and which is Koth?

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 6:13 pm

www wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 8:42 am
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

www wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 8:42 am 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.

NCTom wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 12:45 pm 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.

zendae1 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 2:46 pm

heehaw wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 10:04 am 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!

heehaw wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 10:04 am 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!

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk wrote:
<<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".>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile) wrote:
<<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.>>

www wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 8:42 am 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 ?)