A new study is shaking up what scientists thought they knew about distant objects in the far reaches of the solar system, starting with an object called the space snowman.
Researchers from Brown University and the SETI Institute found that the double-lobed object, which is officially named Kuiper Belt Object 486,958 Arrokoth and resembles a snowman, may have ancient ices stored deep within it from when the object first formed billions of years ago. But that’s just the beginning of their findings.
Using a new model they developed to study how comets evolve, the researchers suggest this feat of perseverance isn’t unique to Arrokoth but that many objects from the Kuiper Belt—which lies at the outermost regions of the solar system and dates back to the early formation of the solar system around 4.6 billion years ago—may also contain the ancient ices they formed with.
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