Ultima Thule from New Horizons
Image Credit: NASA, JHU's APL, SwRI; Color Processing: Thomas Appéré
Ultima Thule is a Kuiper belt object. It was imaged recently, by the spacecraft that flew past Pluto and Charon for the first time.
One thing to note about it is both objects are a little bit red, maybe brownish. Unlike the Pluto/Charon system, where Charon is a little bit reddish, while Pluto is well, it has a lot more other blue and white ices. The suggestion would be that both of the Ultima Thule bodies formed in the same little system, and they spiraled into each other.
Ultima Thule is relatively less cratered than inner solar system asteroids. It wasn't formed from asteroid impacts. The material came together probably more due to electro-static forces.
Recently, Astronomers suggest that despite this first picture, the two objects are a lot more pancaked shaped.
- Below are thoughts about the Tunguska event of 1908
My father has a 1970’s book about Black Holes where I saw pictures of the Tunguska event. The book tried to argue it was a black hole hitting the Earth, and not just a cometary debris. 1965 copywrite actually, by a Walter Sullivan, actually – interesting.
One thing to note about it is both objects are a little bit red, maybe brownish. Unlike the Pluto/Charon system, where Charon is a little bit reddish, while Pluto is well, it has a lot more other blue and white ices. The suggestion would be that both of the Ultima Thule bodies formed in the same little system, and they spiraled into each other.
Ultima Thule is relatively less cratered than inner solar system asteroids. It wasn't formed from asteroid impacts. The material came together probably more due to electro-static forces.
Recently, Astronomers suggest that despite this first picture, the two objects are a lot more pancaked shaped.
- Below are thoughts about the Tunguska event of 1908
My father has a 1970’s book about Black Holes where I saw pictures of the Tunguska event. The book tried to argue it was a black hole hitting the Earth, and not just a cometary debris. 1965 copywrite actually, by a Walter Sullivan, actually – interesting.
The Tunguska event, like Dinosaurs, suggests that some events happen on timescales beyond Human memory and existence. Of course, the Tunguska event happened in recent memory, but it still didn’t become well known till the late 1970s and 1980s when various science and psuedo-science shows took to it. Generally, asteroid and comet strikes don’t happen in human lifetimes.
The Earth is so large that people thought it was flat and had to deduce the roundness. Similarly, the Heavens are so far away, that, generally, celestial objects don’t come to Earth that often. When an asteroid/comet strike happens . . . if anyone survives it . . . human minds, well, should wake up, and maybe question assumptions.
Curiously, videos about Tunguska were made mostly around the late 1970′, early 1980s!
Here’s in search of . . .
Carl Sagan’s Cosmos – Heaven and Hell,
Arthur C. Clarke mysterious world the great siberian explosion
Whenever an event like the Tunguska comet impact happens, lots of people’s fears/dreams come out. Every time yellowstone supervolcano rumbles, or Steamboat geyser goes off, the religions say the end of the world is coming, and you’d better submit to their god.
Other’s, in the case of the Tunguska event explosion speculate everything from black holes, anti-matter . . . to a ufo crash landing.
The Story of Comets, Part One: As Above, So Below
I just found this by a ParallaxNick
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