bison Posted February 8, 2019 #1 Share Posted February 8, 2019 (edited) New images of Kuyper Belt Object Ultima Thule reveal it to be a pair of flattish disks, rather than two joined spheres. It isn't clear how it could have formed in this shape. The planet Saturn has a couple of flattish moons, but these formed under great tidal stresses from the giant planet. These are Atlas, which orbits just outside Saturn's rings, and Pan which travels in a gap within one of the rings. Please find a linked article, below, for more information, including images of the newly-understood shape of Ultima Thule. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/it-looks-like-ultima-thule-may-be-more-of-a-pancake-than-snowman/ Edited February 8, 2019 by bison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manni Posted February 11, 2019 #2 Share Posted February 11, 2019 That's what happens when Chuck Norris has breakfast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted February 11, 2019 Author #3 Share Posted February 11, 2019 Objects forming with an unusually high rate of spin could assume a flattish shape, due to centrifugal force, as long as the spin wasn't so great as to tear them apart. Ultima Thule, and especially Ultima, the larger, flatter lobe could have had an encounter with another Kuyper Belt Object that caused them to spin up in this manner. It's been wondered how Ultima Thule dissipated the momentum present when the two lobes encountered each other in space, and merged. Perhaps this energy was spent in pulling each other into these flattened shapes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hammerclaw Posted February 11, 2019 #4 Share Posted February 11, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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