Initial results from the New Horizons exploration of 2014 MU 69 , a small Kuiper Belt object

S. A Stern (1) , H. A Weaver (2) , J. R Spencer (1) , C. B Olkin (1) , G. R Gladstone , W. Grundy (3) , J. M Moore , D. P Cruikshank , H. Elliott (4) , W. B Mckinnon , J. Wm. Wm Parker (5) , A. J Verbiscer , L. A Young , D. Aguilar (6) , J. M Albers , T. Andert (7) , J. P Andrews , F. Bagenal (8) , M. E Banks , B. A Bauer , J. A Bauman , K. E Bechtold , C. B Beddingfield , N. Behrooz , K. B Beisser , S. D Benecchi , E. Bernardoni , R. A Beyer , S. Bhaskaran , C. J Bierson , R. P Binzel , E. M Birath (9) , M. K Bird (10) , D. R Boone , A. F Bowman , V. J Bray , D. T Britt , L. E Brown , M. R Buckley , M. W Buie , B. J Buratti (11) , L. M Burke , S. S Bushman , B. Carcich , A. L Chaikin , C. L Chavez , A. F Cheng , E. J Colwell , S. J Conard , M. P Conner , C. A Conrad , J. C Cook , S. B Cooper , O. S Custodio , C. M Dalle Ore , C. C Deboy , P. Dharmavaram , R. D Dhingra , G. F Dunn (1) , A. M Earle , A. F Egan , J. Eisig , M. R El-Maarry , C. Engelbrecht , B. L Enke , C. J Ercol , E. D Fattig , C. L Ferrell , T. J Finley , J. Firer , J. Fischetti , W. M Folkner (11) , M. N Fosbury , G. H Fountain , J. M Freeze , L. Gabasova (12) , L. S Glaze , J. L Green , G. A Griffith , Y. Guo , M. Hahn , D. W Hals , D. P Hamilton , S. A Hamilton , J. J Hanley , A. Harch , K. A Harmon , H. M Hart , J. Hayes , C. B Hersman , M. E Hill , T. A Hill (13) , J. D Hofgartner , M. E Holdridge , M. Horányi (8) , A. Hosadurga , A. D Howard , J A Howett , S. E Jaskulek , D. E Jennings (14) , J. R Jensen (15) , M. R Jones (16) , H. K Kang (17) , D. J Katz (18) , D. E Kaufmann , J. J Kavelaars , J. T Keane , G. P Keleher , M. Kinczyk , M. C Kochte , P. Kollmann (2) , S. M Krimigis , G. L Kruizinga , D. y Kusnierkiewicz , M. S Lahr , T. R Lauer , G. B Lawrence , J. E Lee , E. J Lessac-Chenen , I. R Linscott , C. M Lisse , A. W Lunsford , D. M Mages , V. A Mallder , N. Martin (19) , B. H May , D. J Mccomas (20) , R. L Mcnutt , D. S Mehoke , T. Mehoke (21) , D. S Nelson , H. T. Nguyen (22) , J I Núñez , A. C Ocampo , W. M Owen , G. K Oxton , A. H Parker , M. Pätzold (23) , J. y Pelgrift , F. J Pelletier , J. P Pineau , M. R Piquette , S. B Porter , S. Protopapa (1) , E Quirico (12) , J. A Redfern (24) , A. L Regiec , H. J Reitsema , D. C Reuter , D. C Richardson , J. E Riedel , M. A Ritterbush , S. J Robbins , D. J Rodgers (25) , G. D Rogers , D. M Rose , P. E Rosendall , K. D Runyon , M. G Ryschkewitsch , M. M Saina , M. J Salinas , P. M Schenk , J. R Scherrer (26) , W. R Schlei , B. Schmitt (12) , D. J Schultz , D. C Schurr , F. Scipioni , R. L Sepan , R. G Shelton , M. R Showalter (27) , M. Simon (28) , K. N Singer , E. W Stahlheber , D. R Stanbridge , J. A Stansberry (29) , A. J Steffl (9) , D. F Strobel (30) , M. M Stothoff , T. Stryk , J. R Stuart , M. E Summers , M. B Tapley , A. Taylor (31) , H. W Taylor , R. M Tedford , H. B Throop , L. S Turner , O. M Umurhan , J. van Eck , D. Velez (32) , M. H Versteeg (26) , M. A Vincent , R. W Webbert , S. E Weidner (33) , G E Weigle Ii , J. R Wendel , O. L White , K. E Whittenburg , B. G Williams , K. E Williams , S. P Williams , H. L Winters , A. M Zangari (1) , T. H Zurbuchen

1 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [Boulder]
2 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
3 Lowell Observatory [Flagstaff]
4 SPRL - Space Physics Research Laboratory [Ann Arbor]
5 SwRI Planetary Science Directorate [Boulder]
6 Universitat de Lleida
7 Institut für Raumfahrttechnik
8 LASP - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics [Boulder]
9 Department of Space Studies [Boulder]
10 Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
11 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
12 IPAG - Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
13 Institute of Hydrology
14 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
15 IFM - Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology [Linköping]
16 AfricaRice - Africa Rice Center [Bénin]
17 Yonsei University
18 GEPI - Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation
19 CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier
20 Princeton University
21 Reed College
22 HNUE - Hanoi National University of Education
23 RIU - Rhenish Institute for Environmental Research
24 SEAES - School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences [Manchester]
25 ESA
26 SwRI - Southwest Research Institute [San Antonio]
27 ARC - NASA Ames Research Center
28 LURE - Laboratoire pour l'utilisation du rayonnement électromagnétique
29 LPL - Lunar and Planetary Laboratory [Tucson]
30 JHU - Johns Hopkins University
31 FZU / CAS - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
32 LCABIE - Laboratoire de Chimie Analytique Bio-Inorganique et Environnement
33 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology

The Kuiper Belt is a distant region of the Solar System. On 1 January 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft flew close to (486958) 2014 MU69, a Cold Classical Kuiper Belt Object, a class of objects that have never been heated by the Sun and are therefore well preserved since their formation. Here we describe initial results from these encounter observations. MU69 is a bi-lobed contact binary with a flattened shape, discrete geological units, and noticeable albedo heterogeneity. However, there is little surface color and compositional heterogeneity. No evidence for satellites, ring/dust structures, gas coma, or solar wind interactions was detected. MU69’s origin appears consistent with pebble cloud collapse followed by a low velocity merger of its two lobes.

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

S. A Stern, H. A Weaver, J. R Spencer, C. B Olkin, G. R Gladstone, et al.. Initial results from the New Horizons exploration of 2014 MU 69 , a small Kuiper Belt object. Science, 2019, 364 (6441), pp.eaaw9771. ⟨10.1126/science.aaw9771⟩. ⟨hal-02415167⟩