APOD
The Largest Rock Known
January 1, 1998
About This Image
There, that faint dot in the center - that's the largest rock known. It is larger than every known asteroid, moon, and comet nucleus. It is larger than any other rocky planet. (Nobody knows for sure what size rocks lie at the cores of Jovian planets, or orbit other stars.) The Voyager 1 spacecraft took this picture in 1990 from the outer Solar System. This rock is so large its gravity makes it nearly spherical, and holds heavy gases near its surface. Today, this rock starts another orbit around its parent star, for roughly the 5 billionth time, spinning over 350 times during each trip. Happy Gregorian Calendar New Year to all the human inhabitants of this rock we call Earth.
On This Day in Space History
On January 1, 2019, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Arrokoth (2014 MU69), the most distant object ever explored.
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