Astronomers Find First-Ever Quadruple Asteroid

Dragon

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Post n°1

Astronomers Find First-Ever Quadruple Asteroid

Post by Dragon Thu Feb 17, 2022 2:51 am

Astronomers have discovered a third moon orbiting the main-belt asteroid (130) Elektra, making it the first quadruple asteroid ever found.

First discovered on February 17, 1873 by Litchfield Observatory astronomer Christian Peters, (130) Elektra is a large main-belt asteroid.

It has an effective diameter of 199 km (124 miles) and an estimated mass of 7*1018 kg.

Its first moon was discovered in 2003 by a team of astronomers led by Dr. William Merline using the Keck II telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory.

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Astronomers Find First-Ever Quadruple Asteroid 334pu7m

Dragon

Dragon: Senior Administrator; Posts : 10680
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Post n°2

Re: Astronomers Find First-Ever Quadruple Asteroid

Post by Dragon Thu Feb 17, 2022 2:53 am

Astronomers Find First-Ever Quadruple Asteroid Image_10548-Elektra

Image credit: Berdeu et al., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202142623.

This image, taken by the SPHERE/IFS instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2016, shows three satellites (S1 in red circle, S2 in green, and S3 in blue) of the main-belt asteroid (130) Elektra.

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Astronomers Find First-Ever Quadruple Asteroid 334pu7m