Scroll down for videoOn Twitter, Berkeley planetary astronomer Alex Parker commented that the unusual space rock is ‘pretty pancake-like,’ with one of its lobes resembling Saturn’s flat moon, Atlas. The NASA craft first captured images of the dual-lobed space rock, located more than a billion miles from Pluto, when it reached it on New Year's day. Based on the New Horizons observations so far, the scientists say Ultima has a ‘very regular’ rotation period, at about 15 hours. New Horizons captured the last-look images on Jan. 1 at 12:42 a.m. EST, when it was 5,494 miles (8,862 kilometers) beyond the Kuiper Belt object. Based on the New Horizons observations so far, the scientists say Ultima has a ‘very regular’ rotation period, at about 15 hours.

Source: Daily Mail February 08, 2019 23:48 UTC