Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2020 April 1
     See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                             Asteroid or Potato?
                          Image Credit: Jack Sutton

   Explanation: Is this asteroid Arrokoth or a potato? Perhaps, after all
   the data was beamed back to Earth from NASA's robotic New Horizons
   spacecraft, the featured high resolution image of asteroid Arrokoth was
   constructed. Perhaps, alternatively, the featured image is of a potato.
   Let's consider some facts. Arrokoth is the most distant asteroid ever
   visited and a surviving remnant of the early years of our Solar System.
   A potato is a root vegetable that you can eat. Happy April Fool's Day
   from the folks at APOD! Although asteroid Arrokoth may look like a
   potato, in fact very much like the featured potato, Arrokoth (formerly
   known as Ultima Thule) is about 200,000 times wider and much harder to
   eat.

                      Activities: NASA Science at Home
                     Tomorrow's picture: tubers in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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