Wednesday, February 25, 2026

What Causes Those Snowmen in Space?

This image was taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on Jan. 1st, 2019, during a flyby of Arrokoth (2014 MU69). Credit: NASA

Astronomers have long debated why so many icy objects in the outer solar system look like snowmen. Michigan State University researchers now have evidence of the surprisingly simple process that could be responsible for their creation. Jackson Barnes, an MSU graduate student, has created the first simulation that reproduces the two-lobed shape naturally with gravitational collapse. His work is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.



No comments:

Post a Comment