Ultima Thule

Big space news this week. The Chinese made the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, and perhaps they intend on sending people there. There hasn't been a human on the Moon since 1972.

But more fascinating to me is New Horizons, which three years ago transmitted the first close up pictures of Pluto, is taking a flyby of Ultima Thule, which is the farthest away object humans have ever looked at up close. It is a mountain-size rock, shaped like a snowman, that is one of many KBOs, or Kuiper Belt Objects, The Kuiper Belt is a bunch of smallish objects, Pluto included, that orbit the sun way, way out there (the sun, at that distance, gives off about as much light as the full moon does on Earth. So it's dark and cold up there).

When New Horizons launched astronomers didn't even know Ultima Thule was there. It likely got its shape when two objects slammed into each other, and it hasn't likely changed in 4 billion years. Astronomers are excited to see something this old.

This rock was formerly called MU69, but got the name Ultimate Thule from a Norse phrase meaning, "beyond all frontiers," or basically, "farthest away and coldest." I think it sounds like a Swedish death metal band. I always thought the name Oort Cloud, which is the next place New Horizons is going (but we'll all be dead by then by the time it gets there) was a great name for a band, but Ultima Thule can't be beat.

That we can find something less than the length of a marathon is incredible. Scientists actually had to reprogram New Horizons flight pattern to take a look at the thing. Why are we constantly doubting scientists? They know their shit, and Ultima Thule is not mentioned in the Bible.