asteroid Kleopatra tagged posts

ESO captures best images yet of peculiar “Dog-Bone” Asteroid

ESO captures best images yet of peculiar “dog-bone” asteroid
These eleven images are of the asteroid Kleopatra, viewed at different angles as it rotates. The images were taken at different times between 2017 and 2019 with the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument on ESO’s VLT. Kleopatra orbits the Sun in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers have called it a “dog-bone asteroid” ever since radar observations around 20 years ago revealed it has two lobes connected by a thick “neck”. Credit: ESO/Vernazza, Marchis et al./MISTRAL algorithm (ONERA/CNRS)

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), a team of astronomers have obtained the sharpest and most detailed images yet of the asteroid Kleopatra...

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