| DOI | Resolve DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay6620 |
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| Author | Search for: Mckinnon, W. B.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4131-6568; Search for: Richardson, D. C.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0054-6850; Search for: Marohnic, J. C.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6810-7491; Search for: Keane, J. T.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4803-5793; Search for: Grundy, W. M.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8296-6540; Search for: Hamilton, D. P.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5010-0574; Search for: Nesvorný, D.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4547-4301; Search for: Umurhan, O. M.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5372-4254; Search for: Lauer, T. R.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3234-7247; Search for: Singer, K. N.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3045-8445; Search for: Stern, S. A.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5018-7537; Search for: Weaver, H. A.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0951-7762; Search for: Spencer, J. R.1ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4452-8109; Search for: Buie, M. W.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0854-745X; Search for: Moore, J. M.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5815-0536; Search for: Kavelaars, J. J.1ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7032-5255; Search for: Lisse, C. M.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9548-1526; Search for: Mao, X.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7758-9392; Search for: Parker, A. H.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6722-0994; Search for: Porter, S. B.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0333-6055; Search for: Showalter, M. R.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8580-4053; Search for: Olkin, C. B.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5846-716X; Search for: Cruikshank, D. P.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0541-5569; Search for: Elliott, H. A.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2297-3922; Search for: Gladstone, G. R.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0060-072X; Search for: Parker, J. Wm.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3672-0603; Search for: Verbiscer, A. J.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3323-9304; Search for: Young, L. A.ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7547-3967 |
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| Affiliation | - National Research Council of Canada. Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics
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| Format | Text, Article |
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| Abstract | The New Horizons spacecraft’s encounter with the cold classical Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth (provisional designation 2014 MU₆₉) revealed a contact-binary planetesimal. We investigated how Arrokoth formed and found that it is the product of a gentle, low-speed merger in the early Solar System. Its two lenticular lobes suggest low-velocity accumulation of numerous smaller planetesimals within a gravitationally collapsing cloud of solid particles. The geometric alignment of the lobes indicates that they were a co-orbiting binary that experienced angular momentum loss and subsequent merger, possibly because of dynamical friction and collisions within the cloud or later gas drag. Arrokoth’s contact-binary shape was preserved by the benign dynamical and collisional environment of the cold classical Kuiper Belt and therefore informs the accretion processes that operated in the early Solar System. |
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| Publication date | 2020-02-28 |
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| Publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
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| In | |
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| Language | English |
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| Peer reviewed | Yes |
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| Export citation | Export as RIS |
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| Report a correction | Report a correction (opens in a new tab) |
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| Record identifier | 53a8bc97-1fd0-420c-9fe5-a85be5a0e262 |
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| Record created | 2020-07-07 |
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| Record modified | 2021-09-17 |
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