Scientists have solved the mystery of how Arrokoth, a snowman-shaped asteroid at the edge of the solar system, formed through the gentle merger of two smaller asteroids. The discovery explains how similar oddly-shaped objects came to exist in the outer reaches of our cosmic neighborhood.
·Arrokoth's distinctive two-lobed snowman structure resulted from a slow collision and merger of two separate asteroids
·The formation process was gentle enough to preserve the distinct shapes of both original bodies rather than destroying them
·This mechanism explains the presence of other similarly shaped snowmen-like objects throughout the outer solar system
·The discovery was aided by a college student's contribution to the research
drawn from 동아사이언스, The Guardian, Gizmodo, BBC Sky at Night Magazine · updated 4d ago