Space rock ‘Ultima Thule’ renamed ‘Arrokoth’: Here is why | Explained News, The Indian Express

Space rock ‘Ultima Thule’ renamed ‘Arrokoth’: Here is why | Explained News, The Indian Express

Edited by Explained Desk |Updated: November 16, 2019 9:42:54 am

Space rock ‘Ultima Thule’ renamed ‘Arrokoth’: Here is why

Crowd-sourced nickname has a controversial legacy, NASA chooses to use Native American word

Composite image of primordial contact binary Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 from New Horizons Spacecraft Data. (Source: NASA)

About 6.6 billion km from Earth in the Kuiper Belt beyond the orbit of Neptune, a rock moves in slow orbit around the Sun, once every 297 years. Its odd shape consists of two lobes, respectively measuring 21 km and 15 km across, which create an appearance of a doughnut.