The Astonishing Redness of Kuiper-Belt Objects.

Abstract:The recently reported extreme redness of a class of Kuiper-belt objects could be yet another indirect indication of extraterrestrial microbiology in the outer solar system.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup,…
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. — Proverbs, xxiii. 31

The existence of an ancient reservoir of cometary-type objects in stable circular orbits lying beyond the orbit of Neptune is now beyond dispute. Tegler and Romanishen (1998) have recently made the remarkable discovery that these so-called Kuiper-belt objects include some that are exceedingly red. Accurate photometic studies using CCD techniques have revealed two distinct classes of such objects. One class is comprised of objects with surface colours that are only very slightly redder than the sun, whilst the other contains objects that are said to be "the reddest objects of the Solar System". The fact that the distribution of colour amongst these objects does not correlate with heliocentric distance indicates that the intensity of solar radiation does not play an important role in the colouring process.

The so-called reddest objects have a B-V colour excess relative to the Sun typically of ~ 0.65 mag, and a V-R colour excess of ~ 0.4. This implies that the ratio of reflectivity at the wavelengths 4500A and 6500A is

f = R(6500A)/R(4500A) » 2.5 (1)

Table 1 compares this value with reflectiviy ratios extracted from the data of Tholen et al. (1986) for a representative set of comets and D-type asteroids. From Table 1 we see that the surfaces of comets and asteroids fall significantly short of meeting the condition implied by (1). Table 2 sets out experimentally determined values of the same ratio f for several different types of laboratory materials (CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 54th ed., 1973; Larson and Fink, 1977). We note from here that some mineral surfaces could come close to satisfying (1), but by far the best candidates for producing redness are naturally occuring pigments as typified by the data for 'ripe pear' and 'ripe peach'.

Table 2 also includes data for irradiated hydrocarbon mixtures (Andronico et al., 1987). The relevant values of f range from 3.3 to 1, decreasing with increasingradiation dose beyond a certain point. Generally similar results are reported for irradiation with high-energy photons rather than nucleons. In all cases colours ranging from 'yellow' to 'brown' can be generated under carefully controlled conditions, and with precisely chosen cut-off values of radiation doses. On the basis of such laboratory data one could thus conclude that prolonged exposure to high-energy radiation, as occurs in interplanetary space, would lead eventually to the appearance of a grey or neutral colour. One might try to retrieve the case for radiation colouring by invoking meteorite and micrometeorite impacts. Such impacts, it could be said, arrests this greying process by continually exposing a pristine cometary surface that will be subject only to brief interludes of irradiation. But it is clear from Table 1 that the colours of real comets exposed to the interplanetary environment do not bear testimony to such an effect. Indeed Halley's comet and other long-period comets that spend most of their time in the outer regions of the solar system have mostly neutral colours, whilst the shortest period comets show reddening, albeit to a minor degree. From Table 2 it is clear that the reflectivity ratio given by (1) is consistent with the presence of highly absorptive organic chromophores (pigments) that have their absorption peaks distributed over green to red wavelengths.

Table 1

Reflectivity ratios for comets and asteroids

Object	Reflectivity Ratio, R(6500A)/R(4500A)
Comets, period < 20 yr	1.26
Comets, period > 35 yr	1.11
P/Halley (Period 76yr)	1.00
D-type Asteroids(Mean)	1.16
Kuiper-Belt Red Class	2.50

Table 2

Reflectivity ratio, f , for laboratory systems

Laboratory system	Reflectivity Ratio, R(6500A)/R(4500A)
Pyroxene	1.58
Olivine	1.63
Ripe pear	3.67
Ripe peach	4.15
Irradiated organics	3.30 decreasing with dose to 1.0

For many years the present authors have maintained that red colorations of planetary ices, for example the surface of Europa, could most plausibly be explained on the basis of biological pigments (Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, 1983, 1997; Hoover et al., 1986). Such pigments will be continually regenerated and brought up to the surface as long a biological activity persists. Suitable candidates for such pigmented microorganisms could be found among the Antarctic snow-ice algae Chlamydomonas, and diatoms. These organisms, which produce brownish and reddish colorations throughout the polar regions, might well serve as an analogue for the colours of icy bodies in the Kuiper belt. It may be relevant in the present context that diatoms are able to replicate and to carry out photosynthesis beneath an ice crust, operating at light levels of less than 1% that at the surface (Hoover et al., 1986).

We have argued elsewhere that radioactive heat sources present in primordial solar material would inevitably produce melting of ices in the interiors of comets (Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, 1983; Wallis and Wickramasinghe, 1992). The larger objects amongst the comets, giant comets with radii greater than, say 50km, may also be appropriate representations of Kuiper-belt objects. Such objects could retain interior lakes beneath an ice crust for timescales that may even exceed the age of the solar system. Anaerobic bacterial activity in subsurface lakes, leading to the build-up of high-pressure gas pockets, could cause sporadic cracking of an overlying ice layer. And this in turn leads to the transport of biological pigments to the surface.

The classes of red and grey Kuiper-belt objects discovered by Tegler and Romanishen could thus mark out a simple distinction between objects that are biologically active from those that are not. In objects where biological activity has ceased the red pigments would rapidly degrade to become grey.

References

      Andronico, G., Baratta, G.A., Spinella, F. and Strazzulla, G.: 1987, Astonon.Astrophys 184, 49-51
 CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 54th ed: CRC Press, 1973
 Hoover, R. B., Hoyle, F., Wickramasinghe, N. C., Hoover, M. J. & Al-Mufti, S.: 1986, Earth, Moon, and Planets, 35, 19-45
 Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N. C.: 1983, Living Comets, Univ Coll. Cardiff Press
 Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N. C.: 1997, Life on Mars? The case for a cosmic heritage Clinical Press, Bristol
 Larson, H.P. and Fink, U.: 1977, Applied Spectroscopy, 31, 386
 Tegler, S. and Romanishin, W.: 1998, Nature, 392, 49-51
 Tholen, D. J, Cruikshank, D. P, Hartman, W. K, Lark, N, Hammel, H. B. & Piscitelli, J. R.: 1986, Proc. 20th ESLAB Symposium on the Exploration of Halley's Comet, Heidelberg 27-31 October 1986, ESA SP-250, Vol . III, 503-507
 Wallis, M.K. and Wickramasinghe, N.C.: The Observatory, 112, 228-234

Authors:  N.C. Wickramasinghe and F. Hoyle
School of Mathematics, Cardiff University
PO Box 926, Senghennydd Road
Cardiff CF2 4YH, UK 

From: panspermia.org

https://www.panspermia.org/kuiper.htm

The New Horizons probe is approaching Ultima Thule, an  extremely far away, frigid cold, mysterious and very small piece of rock/ice/organic matter

"As the New Horizons spacecraft closes in on its target, Ultima Thule is getting brighter and brighter in the LORRI optical navigation images," New Horizons project scientist Hal Weaver, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said im a statement. "It's now standing out much more clearly among the sea of background stars."

New Horizons took the picture 33 hours before performing a record-setting engine burn to refine its course toward Ultima. The burn — the most distant ever conducted by a spacecraft — lasted 105 seconds and changed New Horizons' velocity by about 2.2 mph (3.5 km/h), mission team members said.

(486958) 2014 MU69 also known as Ultima Thule, is a trans-Neptunian object from the Kuiper belt located in the outermost regions of the Solar System. It was discovered by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope on 26 June 2014. The irregular shaped classical Kuiper Belt objecti a suspected is a suspected contact binary or close binary system and measures approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) in diameter.

In August 2015, this object was selected as the next target for the New Horizonsprobe shortly after it had visited Pluto. The flyby will occur on 1 January 2019, which will make it the farthest object in the Solar System ever to be visited by a spacecraft. After four course changes in October and November 2015, New Horizons is on course toward 2014 MU69

On 13 March 2018, NASA announced that (486958) 2014 MU69 would receive the nickname Ultima Thule. The decision was based on the results of a public voting campaign. Ultima Thule, or Ultima for short, serves as an unofficial name for the object until the discovery team proposes an official name to the IAU that is consistent with existing naming guidelines. The New Horizons team has decided not to go forward with the formal naming process until after the flyby, when the properties of (486958) 2014 MU69 are known well enough to choose a suitable name.

The probe remains on course to cruise within just 2,200 miles (3,500 km) of Ultima Thule (which is officially known as 2014 MU69) at 12:33 a.m. EST (0533 GMT) on Jan. 1. That's more than three times closer than New Horizons got to Pluto during the spaceraft's epic flyby of the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015. 

That encounter showed Pluto to be a complex world with a stunning diversity of landscapes, from tall water-ice mountains to vast nitrogen-ice plains to "bladed" terrain similar to the penitente fields of the high Andes. 

New Horizons' encounter with Ultima, which lies about 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) beyond Pluto, should be similarly revealing. Astronomers have estimated Ultima's size — about 23 miles (37 km) wide — but they know little else about the object. Indeed, it's unclear if Ultima is a single body or a close-orbiting pair.

New Horizons launched in January 2006, tasked with returning the first-ever up-close looks at Pluto. The Ultima Thule flyby is the centerpiece of the probe's extended mission.

Ultima Thule, the farthest astronomical object to be explored by a human-made probe. It will arrive in New Year 2019

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured the world's attention when it buzzed Pluto in July 2015. In January 2019, it will set another record when it reaches another object in the outer edges of the solar system. Known as 2014 MU69 or by its nickname Ultima Thule, the ancient object will provide insight into the early life of the sun and its planets. Unlike other things explored by spacecraft, the tiny chip of ice and rock will be the first to be explored by a spacecraft launched before its discovery.

Both Pluto and 2014 MU69 lie within the Kuiper Belt, a collection of icy rocks that surrounds the outer reaches of the solar system. These objects are thought to be pristine samples from the early solar system, cast out into the boundary zone through gravitational interactions with the larger objects that would grow into planets. Examining them should reveal insight into what was happening in the solar system in the first stages of its lifetime.

NASA announced on Aug. 28, 2015, that it had selected 2014 MU69 as its first choice for the probe's secondary mission.

In 2011, mission scientists used ground-based telescopes to begin searching for a second target, but none of the new discoveries lay within the reach of New Horizons. In 2014, the Hubble Space Telescope joined the search, locating five potential objects. One of them was 2014 MU69, which was labeled 1110113Y after its June 26, 201f4 discovery and PT1 ("potential target 1") after its elevation to one of two possible destinations. In August 2015, the mission team selected 2014 MU69 as its next potential target.

"2014 MU69 is a great choice because it is just the kind of ancient KBO, formed where it orbits now, that the Decadal Survey desired us to fly by," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement. "Moreover, this KBO costs less fuel to reach [than other candidate targets], leaving more fuel for the flyby, for ancillary science, and greater fuel reserves to protect against the unforeseen."

New Horizons' final target lies about 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto.

In 2017, the New Horizons team requested suggestions for nicknames from the public as part of an outreach campaign. The final decision, Ultima Thule, is a term used in medieval times to mean "beyond the known world." The nickname was submitted by about 40 different people, NASA officials said.

"MU69 is humanity's nex  t Ultima Thule," Stern said.

Far out

Even with Hubble, details of Ultima Thule are difficult to make out. The tiny object is estimated to be just under 30 miles (about 45 km) across, less than 1 percent the size of Pluto. If the object is brighter, then it is likely smaller, while a darker object would be larger. Similar objects could have helped to build the dwarf planet in the past.

"There's so much that we can learn from close-up spacecraft observations that we'll never learn from Earth, as the Pluto flyby demonstrated so spectacularly," New Horizons science team member John Spencer, also of SwRI, said in the statement. 

"The detailed images and other data that New Horizons could obtain from a KBO flyby will revolutionize our understanding of the Kuiper Belt and KBOs."

 There's so much that we can learn from close-up spacecraft observations that we'll never learn from Earth, as the Pluto flyby demonstrated so spectacularly," New Horizons science team member John Spencer, also of SwRI, said in the statement. 

"The detailed images and other data that New Horizons could obtain from a KBO flyby will revolutionize our understanding of the Kuiper Belt and KBOs."