The New Horizons team foretell yesterday that MU69 ’s official name would be “ Arrokoth . ”
phratry , that ’s a good name .
You may know this rock as the funnily shaped physical object in the distant Kuiper Belt we first get a respectable look at earlier this yr . It was the target of the New Horizons mission after its flyby of Pluto . First discovered in Hubble Space Telescope data in 2014 by astronomer Marc Buie , the New Horizons spacecraft authorize the sway on New Year ’s Day of this year , to much fanfare .
Arrokoth, also known as (486958) 2014 MU69.
The first data point release revealed lots of interesting tidbits about this rock . It ’s a bi - lobed contact binary program , meaning it ’s made of two objects that flux together . It ’s amazingly flat , with fiddling detritus . It ’s exciting because it ’s “ pristine , ” a piece of cloth that seems to be mostly unchanged since the beginning of the solar system .
But the names for this awing object have n’t been so corking . Its initial name was ( 486958 ) MU69 , MU69 for short , was aperfectly skillful nameif you ask me . Nominators intimate “ Ultima Thule ” during a NASA nickname - take competition , one of 37 suggestions , and the team go with it due to the terminus ’s initial connection with a far , icy land . In 2018 , though , science diarist Meghan Bartels wrote about the name ’s more unsavory connection ; far - right German mythology use the condition to refer to the origination of the “ Aryan race , ” and it start to be associated with Nazism and after neo - Nazism .
When questioned , the New Horizons squad mostlydoubled down , reiterating that the term had multiple connotation and that it was a “ wonderful name for geographic expedition . ”
Ultima Thule was just a irregular name , thankfully . Yesterday , the squad announce that the prescribed name of the rock music would be “ Arrokoth . ” The New Horizons team selected the name with the consent from the Powhatan Tribal elders and instance and suggest it to the International Astronomical Union and Minor Planets Center , fit in to a NASA release .
“ The name ‘ Arrokoth ’ reverberate the inspiration of looking to the skies and wondering about the maven and populace beyond our own , ” Alan Stern , New Horizons principal investigator , said inthe NASA release . “ That desire to take is at the heart of the New Horizons mission , and we ’re honor to link with the Powhatan residential area and people of Maryland in this celebration of find . ”
Both the Hubble Space Telescope and the New Horizons foreign mission are headquarter in Maryland , and the Chesapeake Bay region is an important one to the Powhatan people .
Why do I conceive Arrokoth is a good name ? First off , just say it to yourself . Arrokoth . Arrokoth ! It sounds mythic and epic , and that ’s a good start . second , I very much dislike Nazis . Thirdly , it ’s coolheaded to see Native American representation in something , though evidently this does not loosen all of the many ugly thing the United States has done andcontinues to doto its aboriginal peoples .
Anyway , bye bye , Ultima Thule . Hello , Arrokoth .
young HorizonsScienceSpace
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