Simulations shed light on how snowman-shaped body in Kuiper belt may have formed

Research adds weight to theory Arrokoth’s two lobes produced by gravitational collapse – and reveals process It is the most distant and primitive object ever visited by a spacecraft from Earth: now researchers say they have fresh insights into how the ultra-red, 4bn-year-old body known as Arrokoth came to have its distinctive snowman-like shape. Arrokoth sits in the Kuiper belt, a vast, thick ring of icy objects that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune. This region of space is home to most of the known dwarf planets as well as comets and small, solid rubble heaps called planetesimals – the building blocks of planets. Continue reading...

By Nicola Davis Science correspondent