New Horizons photographed an object called 2014MU69 on January 1, 2019. New Horizons had been launched in January 2006 and made its closet approach to Pluto in July 2015. The mission team had to find a new target for the spacecraft and Hubble provided just that! The team set up New Horizons to photograph the object, called 2014 MU69, at its closet approach on New Year’s Day 2019.
It is a bi-lobed contact binary, formed of two different-sized objects that collided gently with each other and fused together. It has a reddish hue and appears to contain ice made of nitrogen or methane and feature such as hills and plateaus.
Classical Kuiper Belt objects are extremely primitive, virtually unchanged since the dawn of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Studying 2014 MU69 will provide scientists with clues as to how the solar system formed.
Picture Credit : Google