WEIRD ‘DOG BONE’ ASTEROID COULD BE COSMIC RUBBLE
Astronomers have fetched some cool new views of a dog-bone-shaped asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Kleopatra, better known as the ‘dog-bone asteroid’ for its two-lobed shape, is about 167 miles long and has its own pair of moons. The new observations suggest that the asteroid is a loosely accumulated pile of rubble that probably formed from debris from a giant impact.
Scientists first discovered Kleopatra’s dog-bone shape about two decades ago. The new observations of the asteroid were made between 2017 and 2019 by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. As the asteroid rotated, the telescope captured it from different angles, enabling new calculations of the asteroid’s length and volume.
Observations revealed the orbits of the asteroid’s two moons. Along with the asteroid’s length, this information allowed a team led by Miroslav Brož, an astronomer at Charles University in Prague, to calculate the mass of the asteroid, which at 2.97 quadrillion tonnes turned out to be 35 per cent lower than previously estimated. Its density, now estimated at 3.4 grams per cubic centimetre, is also lower than the previous estimate of 4.5 grams per cubic centimetre. The researchers also found the asteroid rotates very quickly, almost fast enough for it to start coming apart.