NASA: Icy object past Pluto looks like reddish snowman

(NASA via AP) This image from video made available by NASA on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019 shows a diagram describing the size and shape of the object Ultima Thule, about 1 billion miles beyond Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft encountered it on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019.Laurel, Md. • A NASA spacecraft traveling 4 billion miles from Earth has sent back its first close-up pictures of the most distant celestial object ever explored, and it looks like a reddish snowman.

Ultima Thule, as the small, icy object has been dubbed, is an elongated body about 20 miles long, consisting of two fused-together spheres.

NASA's New Horizons, the spacecraft that sent back pictures of Pluto 3½ years ago, swept past the…