"this enigmatic space rock will be the most distant object ever visited in the history of spaceflight" The next target of NASA's New Horizons probe is a space rock with some rather intriguing properties. Following its historic flyby of Pluto two years ago, the spacecraft has been heading towards MU69 - an object with a mass approximately 10,000 times that of the comet visited by ESA's Rosetta probe. Measuring around 30 miles in diameter and with an orbit that takes it around the Sun once every 295 years, this enigmatic space rock will be the most distant object ever visited in the history of spaceflight. Now, following a recent opportunity to observe MU69 as it passed in front of a star last month, astronomers have revealed that the probe's new target may not be quite what it seems. Surprisingly, rather than being a lone spherical object, MU69 may actually be an "extreme prolate spheroid", which means that it is similar in shape to a deflated football. Its unusual shape may even