Monday 11 April 2011

11th April 2011 Asteroid - Kleopatra

Kleopatra is a 217 km long  and 58 km wide asteroid which was discovered on April 10, 1880 by Johann Palisa.. In 2000, it was found to be shaped like a bone. It orbits the sun in an orbit outside Mars.  It rotates by tumbling end over end.
NASA
A recent study determined that  Kleopatra is 30-50% empty space.

It also has two moons, Cleoselene (inner) and Alexhelios (outer), which were discovered in 2008. They are between 5 and 10 km in diameter and orbit at 454 and 678 kilometers around Kleopatra.

Sources

Bad Astronomy
The Planetary Society
Astroblogger
Wikipedia
NASA

No comments: