OMG science
fromBig Think
1 day agoThe discovery of an atmosphere on a tiny Kuiper belt world
Accurate observations and experiments reveal atmospheres on distant Kuiper belt objects, extending Pluto’s uniqueness to a second known case.
However, when it comes to the objects beyond Saturn, including the Uranian and Neptunian systems, as well as everything that lies in the Kuiper belt and beyond, the only probes we've ever sent their way are Voyager 2, which flew by Uranus and Neptune in the late 1980s, and New Horizons, which flew past Pluto in 2015.
Out in the Kuiper Belt, the massive doughnut of debris beyond Neptune, about one in 10 kilometer-scale objects have surprised scientists with their unexpected shape. Rather than resembling a ball, each of these remnants from the solar system's early history is composed of two different-sized lobes, like a peanut or a lazily assembled snowman. Astronomers got their clearest view yet of the phenomenon when NASA's New Horizons mission flew by the two-lobed Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth in 2019.