Ultima Thule, the farthest cosmic body ever visited by a spacecraft, has been renamed Arrokoth, or "sky" in the Native American Powhatan language, following a backlash over the previous name's Nazi connotations.

The icy rock, which orbits in the dark and frigid Kuiper Belt about a billion miles beyond Pluto, was surveyed by the NASA spaceship New Horizons in January, with images showing it consisted of two spheres stuck together in the shape of a snowman.

Its technical designation is 2014 MU69, but the New Horizons team nicknamed it Ultima Thule (pronounced Tool-ey) after a mythical northern land in classical and medieval European literature described as beyond the borders of the known world.

That name sparked an angry reaction as it was co-opted by far-right German occultists in the early 20th century as the fabled ancestral home of "Aryan" people -- the term they used to describe proto-Indo-Europeans.

Members of Thule Society founded a political party that evolved into Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, and the term remains popular in alt-right circles.

It is, for example, also the name of a Swedish white-power rock group.

The new official name, which was chosen by the New Horizons team and ratified by the International Astronomical Union, was announced in a ceremony at NASA headquarters Tuesday.

A NASA statement made no mention of the controversy.

"The name 'Arrokoth' reflects the inspiration of looking to the skies and wondering about the stars and worlds beyond our own," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado.&nbsp;

Phoebe Farris, a professor emeritus in art and design at Purdue University who is herself of Powhatan-Pamunkey heritage, told AFP she was asked by NASA to approach Powhatan elders for their consent, and "all the feedback was positive and perceived as an honouring.

"Since we are the original inhabitants of what is now called North America, known to us as Turtle Island, it is fitting that 'discoveries' over our skies, on our land and in our waters should be given indigenous names," she added.

Both the Hubble Space Telescope, which found the object in 2014, and the New Horizons mission at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory are operated out of Maryland, whose Chesapeake Bay region is home to the Powhatan people.

Responding to a query by AFP, NASA emphasized Ultima Thule was only ever a nickname -- but did not comment on whether the Nazi controversy played a role in it being discarded.

Negative context

But astrophysicist Simon Porter, part of the team that made the discovery and co-investigator for New Horizons' current mission as it exits the solar system, told AFP: "Basically, not enough due diligence was done.&nbsp;

"Historically that name was very positive and (we) realized afterwards that under certain contexts it was negative."

Arrokoth is an example of a "cold classical object" which has remained undisturbed since the solar system formed some 4.5 billion years ago.

"So you're looking basically back in time at a snapshot of how the planets formed," said Porter.

"We're studying the surfaces of the object, studying what it's made out of, to try and figure out how the entire solar system was built."

The New Horizons spacecraft is now at the outer edges of the Kuiper Belt that extends from the orbit of Neptune and will join Voyager 1 and 2 beyond the Sun's sphere of influence and into interstellar space.

Ultima Thule, the farthest cosmic body ever visited by a spacecraft, has been renamed Arrokoth, or "sky" in the Native American Powhatan language, following a backlash over the previous name's Nazi connotations.

Ultima Thule, the farthest cosmic body ever visited by a spacecraft, has been renamed Arrokoth, or "sky" in the Native American Powhatan language, following a backlash over the previous name's Nazi connotations. The icy rock, which orbits in the dark and frigid Kuiper Belt about a billion miles beyond Pluto, was surveyed by the NASA spaceship New Horizons in January, with images showing it consisted of two spheres stuck together in the shape of a snowman. Its technical designation is 2014 MU69, but the New Horizons team nicknamed it Ultima Thule (pronounced Tool-ey) after a mythical northern land in classical and medieval European literature described as beyond the borders of the known world. That name sparked an angry reaction as it was co-opted by far-right German occultists in the early 20th century as the fabled ancestral home of "Aryan" people -- the term they used to describe proto-Indo-Europeans. Members of Thule Society founded a political party that evolved into Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, and the term remains popular in alt-right circles. It is, for example, also the name of a Swedish white-power rock group. The new official name, which was chosen by the New Horizons team and ratified by the International Astronomical Union, was announced in a ceremony at NASA headquarters Tuesday. A NASA statement made no mention of the controversy. "The name 'Arrokoth' reflects the inspiration of looking to the skies and wondering about the stars and worlds beyond our own," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. Phoebe Farris, a professor emeritus in art and design at Purdue University who is herself of Powhatan-Pamunkey heritage, told AFP she was asked by NASA to approach Powhatan elders for their consent, and "all the feedback was positive and perceived as an honouring. "Since we are the original inhabitants of what is now called North America, known to us as Turtle Island, it is fitting that 'discoveries' over our skies, on our land and in our waters should be given indigenous names," she added. Both the Hubble Space Telescope, which found the object in 2014, and the New Horizons mission at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory are operated out of Maryland, whose Chesapeake Bay region is home to the Powhatan people. Responding to a query by AFP, NASA emphasized Ultima Thule was only ever a nickname -- but did not comment on whether the Nazi controversy played a role in it being discarded. Negative context But astrophysicist Simon Porter, part of the team that made the discovery and co-investigator for New Horizons' current mission as it exits the solar system, told AFP: "Basically, not enough due diligence was done. "Historically that name was very positive and (we) realized afterwards that under certain contexts it was negative." Arrokoth is an example of a "cold classical object" which has remained undisturbed since the solar system formed some 4.5 billion years ago. "So you're looking basically back in time at a snapshot of how the planets formed," said Porter. "We're studying the surfaces of the object, studying what it's made out of, to try and figure out how the entire solar system was built." The New Horizons spacecraft is now at the outer edges of the Kuiper Belt that extends from the orbit of Neptune and will join Voyager 1 and 2 beyond the Sun's sphere of influence and into interstellar space.

NASA renames faraway ice world after Nazi-link backlash

Four billion miles from the sun floats Ultima Thule, an icy celestial body that NASA scientists announced Wednesday is aptly shaped like a giant snowman.&nbsp;

The first detailed images beamed back from the US agency's New Horizons mission allowed scientists to confidently determine the body was formed when two spheres, or "lobes," slowly gravitated towards each other until they stuck together -- a major scientific discovery.

The New Horizons spacecraft on Tuesday flew past Ultima Thule, which was discovered via telescope in 2014 and is the farthest and potentially oldest cosmic body ever observed by a spacecraft.

Before that flyby, the only image scientists had was a blurry one showing Ultima Thule's oblong shape, resembling something like a bowling pin or a peanut.

"That image is so 2018... Meet Ultima Thule!" said lead investigator Alan Stern, doing little to hide his joy as he revealed a new sharper image of the cosmic body, taken at a distance as close as 17,000 miles (about 27,000 kilometers) with a resolution of 140 meters per pixel.

"That bowling pin is gone -- it's a snowman if anything at all," Stern said during a NASA briefing.

"What this spacecraft and this team accomplished is unprecedented."

Ultima Thule's surface reflects light about as much as "garden variety dirt," he said, as the sun's rays are 1,600 times fainter there than on Earth.

The body is roughly 19 miles long and completes its own rotation in about 15 hours. NASA dubbed the larger lobe Ultima, and the other, which is about three times smaller, Thule.

"This is the first object that we can clearly tell was born this way" Stern said, instead of evolving as a sort of "bi-lobe."

"This really puts the nail on the coffin now. We know that this is how these kinds of objects in many cases form."

'A time machine'

Some 4.5 billion years ago a cloud of frozen pebbles began to join forces, gradually forming two bodies -- Ultima and Thule.

Slowing turning, they eventually touched at each other at what mission geology manager Jeff Moore called an "extremely slow speed" -- maybe just one to a few miles per hour.

If such a meeting occurred between two cars in a parking lot, he said, no driver would bother writing it up. The lobes, according to Moore, are really just "resting on each other."

"New Horizons is like a time machine, taking us back to the birth of the solar system," Moore said. "We are seeing a physical representation of the beginning of planetary formation, frozen in time."

Carly Howett, another researcher of the mission, noted that "we can definitely say that Ultima Thule is red," perhaps due to irradiation of ice.

NASA researchers promised fresh announcements would drop Thursday, including on the composition and atmosphere of Ultima Thule, as new images with even more precise resolution have come through.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Four billion miles from the sun floats Ultima Thule, an icy celestial body that NASA scientists announced Wednesday is aptly shaped like a giant snowman. The first detailed images beamed back from the US agency's New Horizons mission allowed scientists to confidently determine the body was formed when two spheres, or "lobes," slowly gravitated towards each other until they stuck together -- a major scientific discovery.

Four billion miles from the sun floats Ultima Thule, an icy celestial body that NASA scientists announced Wednesday is aptly shaped like a giant snowman. The first detailed images beamed back from the US agency's New Horizons mission allowed scientists to confidently determine the body was formed when two spheres, or "lobes," slowly gravitated towards each other until they stuck together -- a major scientific discovery. The New Horizons spacecraft on Tuesday flew past Ultima Thule, which was discovered via telescope in 2014 and is the farthest and potentially oldest cosmic body ever observed by a spacecraft. Before that flyby, the only image scientists had was a blurry one showing Ultima Thule's oblong shape, resembling something like a bowling pin or a peanut. "That image is so 2018... Meet Ultima Thule!" said lead investigator Alan Stern, doing little to hide his joy as he revealed a new sharper image of the cosmic body, taken at a distance as close as 17,000 miles (about 27,000 kilometers) with a resolution of 140 meters per pixel. "That bowling pin is gone -- it's a snowman if anything at all," Stern said during a NASA briefing. "What this spacecraft and this team accomplished is unprecedented." Ultima Thule's surface reflects light about as much as "garden variety dirt," he said, as the sun's rays are 1,600 times fainter there than on Earth. The body is roughly 19 miles long and completes its own rotation in about 15 hours. NASA dubbed the larger lobe Ultima, and the other, which is about three times smaller, Thule. "This is the first object that we can clearly tell was born this way" Stern said, instead of evolving as a sort of "bi-lobe." "This really puts the nail on the coffin now. We know that this is how these kinds of objects in many cases form." 'A time machine' Some 4.5 billion years ago a cloud of frozen pebbles began to join forces, gradually forming two bodies -- Ultima and Thule. Slowing turning, they eventually touched at each other at what mission geology manager Jeff Moore called an "extremely slow speed" -- maybe just one to a few miles per hour. If such a meeting occurred between two cars in a parking lot, he said, no driver would bother writing it up. The lobes, according to Moore, are really just "resting on each other." "New Horizons is like a time machine, taking us back to the birth of the solar system," Moore said. "We are seeing a physical representation of the beginning of planetary formation, frozen in time." Carly Howett, another researcher of the mission, noted that "we can definitely say that Ultima Thule is red," perhaps due to irradiation of ice. NASA researchers promised fresh announcements would drop Thursday, including on the composition and atmosphere of Ultima Thule, as new images with even more precise resolution have come through.

NASA says faraway world Ultima Thule shaped like 'snowman'

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/nasa-spacecraft-makes-historic-flyby-of-ultima-thule-distant-world-ever-studied-187648">NASA's New Horizons explorer</a> successfully "phoned home" on Tuesday after a journey to the most distant world ever explored by humankind, a frozen rock at the edge of the solar system that scientists hope will uncover secrets to its creation.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/nasa-spacecraft-breaks-record-for-smallest-space-object-ever-orbited-187693">The nuclear-powered space probe</a> has travelled 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) to come within 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of Ultima Thule, an apparently peanut-shaped, 20-mile-long (32-km-long) space rock in the uncharted heart of the Kuiper Belt. The belt is a ring of icy celestial bodies just outside Neptune's orbit.

Engineers at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland cheered when the spacecraft's first signals came through the National Aeronautic and Space Agency's Deep Space Network at 10:28 am EST (1528 GMT).

"We have a healthy spacecraft," Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman declared.

The spacecraft will ping back more detailed images and data from Thule in the coming days, NASA said. &nbsp;

Launched in January 2006, New Horizons embarked on its 4 billion-mile journey toward the solar system’s edge to study the dwarf planet Pluto and its five moons.

"Last night, overnight, the United States spacecraft New Horizons conducted the farthest exploration in the history of humankind, and did so spectacularly," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern told a news conference at the Johns Hopkins facility in Laurel, Maryland.

An image of Thule, sent overnight and barely more detailed than previous images, deepens the mystery of whether Thule is a single rock shaped like an asymmetrical peanut or actually two rocks orbiting each other, "blurred together because of their proximity," Stern said.

During a 2015 fly-by, the probe found Pluto to be slightly larger than previously thought. In March, it revealed methane-rich dunes on the icy dwarf planet’s surface.

Now 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) beyond Pluto for its second mission into the Kuiper Belt, New Horizons will study the makeup of Ultima Thule's atmosphere and terrain in a months-long study to seek clues about the formation of the solar system and its planets.

Scientists had not discovered Ultima Thule when the probe was launched, according to NASA, making the mission unique in that respect. In 2014, astronomers found Thule using the Hubble Space Telescope and the following year selected it for New Horizon's extended mission.&nbsp;

As the probe flies 2,200 miles (3,540 km) above Thule's surface, scientists hope it will detect the chemical composition of its atmosphere and terrain in what NASA says will be the closest observation of a body so remote.&nbsp;

"We are straining the capabilities of this spacecraft, and by tomorrow we'll know how we did," Stern told reporters on Monday. "There are no second chances for New Horizons."

While the mission marks the farthest close encounter of an object within our solar system, NASA's Voyager 1 and 2, a pair of deep-space probes launched in 1977, have reached greater distances on a mission to survey extrasolar bodies. Both probes are still operational.

Launched in January 2006, New Horizons embarked on its 4 billion-mile journey toward the solar system’s edge to study the dwarf planet Pluto and its five moons.

NASA's New Horizons explorer successfully "phoned home" on Tuesday after a journey to the most distant world ever explored by humankind, a frozen rock at the edge of the solar system that scientists hope will uncover secrets to its creation. The nuclear-powered space probe has travelled 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) to come within 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of Ultima Thule, an apparently peanut-shaped, 20-mile-long (32-km-long) space rock in the uncharted heart of the Kuiper Belt. The belt is a ring of icy celestial bodies just outside Neptune's orbit. Engineers at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland cheered when the spacecraft's first signals came through the National Aeronautic and Space Agency's Deep Space Network at 10:28 am EST (1528 GMT). "We have a healthy spacecraft," Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman declared. The spacecraft will ping back more detailed images and data from Thule in the coming days, NASA said. Launched in January 2006, New Horizons embarked on its 4 billion-mile journey toward the solar system’s edge to study the dwarf planet Pluto and its five moons. "Last night, overnight, the United States spacecraft New Horizons conducted the farthest exploration in the history of humankind, and did so spectacularly," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern told a news conference at the Johns Hopkins facility in Laurel, Maryland. An image of Thule, sent overnight and barely more detailed than previous images, deepens the mystery of whether Thule is a single rock shaped like an asymmetrical peanut or actually two rocks orbiting each other, "blurred together because of their proximity," Stern said. During a 2015 fly-by, the probe found Pluto to be slightly larger than previously thought. In March, it revealed methane-rich dunes on the icy dwarf planet’s surface. Now 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) beyond Pluto for its second mission into the Kuiper Belt, New Horizons will study the makeup of Ultima Thule's atmosphere and terrain in a months-long study to seek clues about the formation of the solar system and its planets. Scientists had not discovered Ultima Thule when the probe was launched, according to NASA, making the mission unique in that respect. In 2014, astronomers found Thule using the Hubble Space Telescope and the following year selected it for New Horizon's extended mission. As the probe flies 2,200 miles (3,540 km) above Thule's surface, scientists hope it will detect the chemical composition of its atmosphere and terrain in what NASA says will be the closest observation of a body so remote. "We are straining the capabilities of this spacecraft, and by tomorrow we'll know how we did," Stern told reporters on Monday. "There are no second chances for New Horizons." While the mission marks the farthest close encounter of an object within our solar system, NASA's Voyager 1 and 2, a pair of deep-space probes launched in 1977, have reached greater distances on a mission to survey extrasolar bodies. Both probes are still operational.

NASA space probe 'phones home' in landmark mission to solar system's edge

A NASA spacecraft on Tuesday flew past the most distant world ever studied by humankind, <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/nasa-spaceship-zooms-toward-farthest-world-ever-photographed-187515">Ultima Thule</a>, a frozen relic of the early solar system that could reveal how planets formed.

"Go New Horizons!" said lead scientist Alan Stern as a crowd cheered at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland to mark the moment at 12:33 am (0533 GMT) when the New Horizons spacecraft aimed its cameras at the space rock four billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away.

"Never before has a spacecraft explored something so far away."

The spaceship was to collect 900 images over the course of a few seconds as it shaved by at a distance of about 2,000 miles (3,500 kilometers).

"Now it is just a matter of time to see the data coming down," said deputy project scientist John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute.

Scientists expect to learn whether the pass was successful around 10 am (1500 GMT).

A NASA spacecraft on Tuesday flew past the most distant world ever studied by humankind, Ultima Thule, a frozen relic of the early solar system that could reveal how planets formed.

A NASA spacecraft on Tuesday flew past the most distant world ever studied by humankind, Ultima Thule, a frozen relic of the early solar system that could reveal how planets formed. "Go New Horizons!" said lead scientist Alan Stern as a crowd cheered at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland to mark the moment at 12:33 am (0533 GMT) when the New Horizons spacecraft aimed its cameras at the space rock four billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away. "Never before has a spacecraft explored something so far away." The spaceship was to collect 900 images over the course of a few seconds as it shaved by at a distance of about 2,000 miles (3,500 kilometers). "Now it is just a matter of time to see the data coming down," said deputy project scientist John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute. Scientists expect to learn whether the pass was successful around 10 am (1500 GMT).

NASA spacecraft makes historic flyby of Ultima Thule, distant world ever studied

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NASA renames faraway ice world after Nazi-link backlash

NASA says faraway world Ultima Thule shaped like 'snowman'

NASA space probe 'phones home' in landmark mission to solar system's edge

NASA spacecraft makes historic flyby of Ultima Thule, distant world ever studied