Details Pour in from New Horizons’ Visit to a Kuiper Belt Object
Phoenix666 writes:
Following its successful rendezvous with Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft was sent on toward a smaller object out in the Kuiper Belt. As it shot past, the spacecraft captured images of a small world [Arrokoth] consisting of two very distinct lobes, with properties that scientists found a bit confusing. But details would have to wait, as the combination of distance and power budget meant that transmitting much of New Horizons' data back to Earth was a slow process.
[...]the object is likely to be composed of material that is largely unchanged since the formation of the Solar System. And, by all indications, it is true. Evaluations of the crater density on the surface of Arrokoth is consistent with an age of four billion years, that of the Solar System itself. And the surface has the red color typical of other objects from this region of the Kuiper belt, suggesting that its surface hasn't seen significant chemical modification.
The red color seems to come from a complicated mix of longer-chain hydrocarbons collectively called tholins. These are built by chemical reactions among shorter molecules driven by radiation exposure. In Arrokoth's case, those shorter molecules appear to include methanol, a single-carbon alcohol and the only individual chemical clearly identified in the New Horizons data. Methanol could have formed by chemical reactions between methane and water, but there's only weak indications of the presence of water on Arrokoth and no clear signature of methane.
The object is of particular interest because of its age and lobed structure.
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