The next stop for NASA's Pluto spacecraft may be a duck-shaped space rock

Two years after its famous flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is zooming toward another space rock at the edge of the Solar System, and scientists now think they may know its shape. The object could resemble a rubber duck or it could be two space rocks very close together, according to new observations. The information is key to better prepare for New Horizons’ flyby of the object, which is currently scheduled for January 1st, 2019.

The small icy body is called 2014 MU69 and it orbits about 4 billion miles away from Earth. Last month, New Horizons scientists briefly spotted 2014 MU69 from a remote part of Argentina, as the rock passed in front of a background star, momentarily blocking the star’s light. The short eclipse —...

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