NASA discovered a snowman-shaped space object

NASA has proudly revealed an “entirely new kind of world” it discovered deep in space. The first images show an object very similar to a snowman.

NASA marked the new year with a historic “fly-by” of a brand new world the space agency claims is the most distant object ever discovered by humankind.

The distant world, dubbed the Kuiper Belt, is about 6.5 billion kilometres from Earth and believed to be the oldest cosmic body ever explored.

And within it, the US space agency’s New Horizons space probe discovered a tiny space object during a fly-by, which scientists have named Ultima Thule.

To put this discovery into perspective, Ultima Thule is about 1.6 billion kilometres beyond Pluto, which is the farthest known planet from Earth.

An image taken by the New Horizons spacecraft of Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day. Picture: NASA

The first image taken as the probe ventured as close as 27,000km to Ultima Thule was so blurred that it looked a lot like a bowling pin, but new images have since changed the team’s perspective.

“Let me say that bowling pin is gone — it’s a snowman, if it’s anything at all,” New Horizon’s principal investigator Alan Stern told media during a press conference this week.

Image showing Ultima Thule by the crosshairs at centre, with stars surrounding it. Picture: NASA

Early images of Ultima Thule were blurred and fuzzy — and resembled a bowling pin. Picture: NASA

Further investigation of the object has confirmed that it is actually red in colour.

Dr Stern described the discovery as a “historic achievement”.

“Never before has any spacecraft team tracked down such a small body, at such high speed, so far away in the abyss of space,” he said.

“New Horizons has set a new bar for state-of-the-art spacecraft navigation.”

New colour images of Ultima Thule reveal that the object is actually red in colour. Picture: NASA

Ultima Thule is described as a “contact binary”, consisting of two connected spheres that measure about 31km in length and resembles a snowman.

The smaller, head-shaped body is called Thule and the larger body of the hypothetical snowman is known as Ultima.

Ultima Thule is about 1.6 billion kilometres past Pluto. Picture: NASA via AP

The New Horizons space probe is exploring space with the aim of understanding “the birth of the solar system”.

The team’s geology and geophysics lead Jeff Moore said the discovery of Ultima Thule will help them in their investigation.

“Studying Ultima Thule is helping us understand how planets form — both those in our own solar system and those orbiting other stars in our galaxy,” he said.

Alan Stern high-fives New Horizon’s mission operations manager Alice Bowman after the team received signals from the spacecraft that it is healthy and collected data. Picture: NASA

In the coming months, the New Horizons space probe will send back more data and high resolution images from its fly-by to Ultima Thule which will help to write new chapters in its story.