Which spacecraft visited 486958 Arrokoth?

The spacecraft that visited 486958 Arrokoth is New Horizons. This mission was specifically designed to study objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune that contains many small, icy bodies. New Horizons is most famous for its flyby of Pluto in 2015, but after its success there, it continued its journey to explore other Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs).

On January 1, 2019, New Horizons successfully conducted a flyby of Arrokoth, which was then known as Ultima Thule. This flyby provided unprecedented data and images, allowing scientists to gain insight into the formation and evolution of the solar system. The findings included information about the object's two lobes, which are believed to have been formed from a gentle collision between smaller objects.

Understanding the characteristics of Arrokoth helps researchers understand more about the building blocks of planetary systems and the conditions in the early solar system. Thus, New Horizons played a vital role in expanding our knowledge of such distant celestial bodies.