2024 PDS release
The local arrokoth-porter-2024.obj is the NASA PDS archive product derived from LORRI imaging.
Interactive Arrokoth atlas
Loading 2024 PDS shape model…
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near centerfar from center
ARCHIVED SHAPENASA PDS Porter (2024) reconstruction: 20,484 vertices and 40,960 triangles across two closed lobe meshes, served locally in kilometres.
SEPARATE MAPPED MODELNASA's textured GLB is held distinct; no validated UV transfer to the newer PDS mesh is supplied.
SCOPE OF “LIVE”The 2019 flyby record is archival. Live refers to the indexed research feed and the present orbital context only.
Method
Surface encoding
PDS 2024 shape renders the reconstructed form under a movable key light. Radius from center colors the model vertices by distance from the body centre. Mapped view substitutes NASA's independent textured presentation model. Facet mesh displays the triangulation itself.
Wenu and Weeyo accreted as separate bodies and merged at low relative velocity. Comparable colour and composition, together with a dynamically cold orbit, are consistent with assembly in the early outer solar system. Methanol ice and complex organic material have been identified on the red surface; water ice was not detected.
Separate mapped product
The NASA GLB carries flyby imagery on a coarser mesh. No transfer of those pixels to the PDS geometry is performed.
Coordinate placeholders
The Gazetteer records 0°, 0° placeholder centres for all five adopted names. Lobe and neck markers are geometry callouts; Sky and Ka'an remain unpinned.
Live context · JPL-derived orbit map
Current orbital position
Arrokoth is propagated from current JPL-derived orbital elements within the site's named-body catalog.
Primary sources
Data provenance
- NASA Planetary Data System — Porter (2024) Arrokoth shape model collection · DOI 10.26007/97r3-1e19
- NASA Science — Arrokoth mapped 3D presentation model
- NASA Science — Arrokoth encounter facts — outreach page; its dimensions, obliquity and “water ice” statements predate Porter (2024) and Grundy et al. (2020) and are not used here
- USGS / IAU — Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Arrokoth
- Porter, S. B., et al. (2024), “The Shape of (486958) Arrokoth”, collection documentation for the PDS shape model release — PDF. Source of the 34.5 × 19.8 × 13.8 km axes and the 100.4° pole inclination quoted above; supersedes the 36 × 20 × 10 km solution of Spencer et al. (2020).
- McKinnon, W. B., et al. (2020), “The solar nebula origin of (486958) Arrokoth, a primordial contact binary in the Kuiper Belt”, Science 367, eaay6620. doi:10.1126/science.aay6620
- Spencer, J. R., et al. (2020), “The geology and geophysics of Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth”, Science 367, eaay3999. doi:10.1126/science.aay3999 — 15.92 ± 0.02 h rotation period; 3538 km closest approach.
- Grundy, W. M., et al. (2020), “Color, composition, and thermal environment of Kuiper Belt object (486958) Arrokoth”, Science 367, eaay3705. doi:10.1126/science.aay3705 — methanol ice and organics detected; water ice not detected.