Scientists say images from NASA’s spacecraft New Horizons show a snowman-like object in the cold, icy part of our solar system. The “snowman,” named Ultima Thule, orbits an area known as the Kuiper Belt. The area has hundreds of thousands of objects that could hold the keys to understanding the beginning of our solar system. Jeff Moore leads the New Horizons’ geology team. He said the spacecraft “is like a time machine, taking us back to the birth of the solar system.” Early images show that Ultima Thule is about 31 kilometers by 19 kilometers. Alan Stern, the lead investigator for the mission, said, “It’s two completely different objects that are now joined together.” Ultima Thule likely formed as a rotating cloud of small, icy objects started to combine. Over time, two larger objects remained and slowly joined together in what scientists called “contact binary.” The mission team named the larger object “Ultima” and the smaller one “Thule.”