The Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (THAT) in Chile managed to take the best photos of the great so far asteroid “Cleopatra” of its two small companions “moons”, at a distance of about 200 million kilometers from Earth, thus allowing astronomers to calculate their shape and mass.
“Cleopatra” which is 270 km long and looks like a huge dog bone, as it consists of two lobes connected by a thick neck, it was first discovered in 1880 as a dot in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Its strange shape was discovered by radar 20 years ago, while in 2008 its two small satellites, named Alexilios and CleoSelini, were also spotted after the names of the children of Queen Cleopatra, Alexander Ilios and Cleopatra.
The scientists, led by astronomer Franck Marchis of the SETI Institute in California, who published two related articles in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, said that Cleopatra is truly a unique body in our solar system. “It’s a complex multi-star system that will help us learn more about our solar system.”
Cleopatra, which rotates at high speed, is estimated to be composed of various metals, but its low density indicates that it is very porous. Perhaps due to a collision in the past he acquired satellites, which may be more than the two already known.
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