As NASA's New Horizons probe continues its epic journey through and beyond the solar system, its encounter with a planetoid labelled Ultima Thule (that's pronounced too-lay, by the way, and is the traditional name for places beyond the known world since Greek and Roman times) is exciting a lot of comment and attention.
Ultima Thule is about 1.5 billion km beyond the orbit of even Pluto, and 6.5 billion km from Earth, deep in the Kuiper Belt of asteroids and messy rocky debris. Originally described as the shape of a bowling pin from its early poor resolution images, more recent higher resolution images show two more-or-less spherical planetoids, one about three times the size of the other, stuck together in the early stages of planetary aggregation. The best description now is of a "flying interplanetary snowman", which I find a much more satisfying and memorable depiction.
Unfortunately, it has a distinct reddish tinge, which rather spoils the whole Frosty image. Still, think of Frosty blushing, or Raymond Briggs' Snowman warming himself by the fireplace, and you come close to an enduring - and endearing - image of Ultima Thule.
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