1. Initial results from the New Horizons exploration of 2014 MU 69 , a small Kuiper Belt object.
- Author
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Stern SA, Weaver HA, Spencer JR, Olkin CB, Gladstone GR, Grundy WM, Moore JM, Cruikshank DP, Elliott HA, McKinnon WB, Parker JW, Verbiscer AJ, Young LA, Aguilar DA, Albers JM, Andert T, Andrews JP, Bagenal F, Banks ME, Bauer BA, Bauman JA, Bechtold KE, Beddingfield CB, Behrooz N, Beisser KB, Benecchi SD, Bernardoni E, Beyer RA, Bhaskaran S, Bierson CJ, Binzel RP, Birath EM, Bird MK, Boone DR, Bowman AF, Bray VJ, Britt DT, Brown LE, Buckley MR, Buie MW, Buratti BJ, Burke LM, Bushman SS, Carcich B, Chaikin AL, Chavez CL, Cheng AF, Colwell EJ, Conard SJ, Conner MP, Conrad CA, Cook JC, Cooper SB, Custodio OS, Dalle Ore CM, Deboy CC, Dharmavaram P, Dhingra RD, Dunn GF, Earle AM, Egan AF, Eisig J, El-Maarry MR, Engelbrecht C, Enke BL, Ercol CJ, Fattig ED, Ferrell CL, Finley TJ, Firer J, Fischetti J, Folkner WM, Fosbury MN, Fountain GH, Freeze JM, Gabasova L, Glaze LS, Green JL, Griffith GA, Guo Y, Hahn M, Hals DW, Hamilton DP, Hamilton SA, Hanley JJ, Harch A, Harmon KA, Hart HM, Hayes J, Hersman CB, Hill ME, Hill TA, Hofgartner JD, Holdridge ME, Horányi M, Hosadurga A, Howard AD, Howett CJA, Jaskulek SE, Jennings DE, Jensen JR, Jones MR, Kang HK, Katz DJ, Kaufmann DE, Kavelaars JJ, Keane JT, Keleher GP, Kinczyk M, Kochte MC, Kollmann P, Krimigis SM, Kruizinga GL, Kusnierkiewicz DY, Lahr MS, Lauer TR, Lawrence GB, Lee JE, Lessac-Chenen EJ, Linscott IR, Lisse CM, Lunsford AW, Mages DM, Mallder VA, Martin NP, May BH, McComas DJ, McNutt RL Jr, Mehoke DS, Mehoke TS, Nelson DS, Nguyen HD, Núñez JI, Ocampo AC, Owen WM, Oxton GK, Parker AH, Pätzold M, Pelgrift JY, Pelletier FJ, Pineau JP, Piquette MR, Porter SB, Protopapa S, Quirico E, Redfern JA, Regiec AL, Reitsema HJ, Reuter DC, Richardson DC, Riedel JE, Ritterbush MA, Robbins SJ, Rodgers DJ, Rogers GD, Rose DM, Rosendall PE, Runyon KD, Ryschkewitsch MG, Saina MM, Salinas MJ, Schenk PM, Scherrer JR, Schlei WR, Schmitt B, Schultz DJ, Schurr DC, Scipioni F, Sepan RL, Shelton RG, Showalter MR, Simon M, Singer KN, Stahlheber EW, Stanbridge DR, Stansberry JA, Steffl AJ, Strobel DF, Stothoff MM, Stryk T, Stuart JR, Summers ME, Tapley MB, Taylor A, Taylor HW, Tedford RM, Throop HB, Turner LS, Umurhan OM, Van Eck J, Velez D, Versteeg MH, Vincent MA, Webbert RW, Weidner SE, Weigle GE 2nd, Wendel JR, White OL, Whittenburg KE, Williams BG, Williams KE, Williams SP, Winters HL, Zangari AM, and Zurbuchen TH
- Abstract
The Kuiper Belt is a distant region of the outer Solar System. On 1 January 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft flew close to (486958) 2014 MU
69 , a cold classical Kuiper Belt object approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. Such objects have never been substantially heated by the Sun and are therefore well preserved since their formation. We describe initial results from these encounter observations. MU69 is a bilobed contact binary with a flattened shape, discrete geological units, and noticeable albedo heterogeneity. However, there is little surface color or compositional heterogeneity. No evidence for satellites, rings or other dust structures, a gas coma, or solar wind interactions was detected. MU69 's origin appears consistent with pebble cloud collapse followed by a low-velocity merger of its two lobes., (Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)- Published
- 2019
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