Posted on 09/10/2021 7:19:12 AM PDT by BenLurkin
"Kleopatra is truly a unique body in our solar system," SETI Institute astronomer Franck Marchis said in a statement. "Science makes a lot of progress thanks to the study of weird outliers. I think Kleopatra is one of those and understanding this complex, multiple asteroid system can help us learn more about our Solar System."
A second study published in the same journal refined previously estimated orbits of the two moons around Kleopatra, allowing the researchers to calculate the mass of the main asteroid, which turned out to be a surprise.
Kleopatra has over a third less mass than indicated by previous estimates, a strange development considering it's thought to be metallic. All this suggests it's more a porous pile of pebbles than one big hunk of iron.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
Two moons? I guess that’s why you posted it twice. :)
... And two posts.................
Space junk left over from some long forgotten war millenniums ago ...
Looks like a peanut.
Looks like a dog turd…
Movie sign!
It would help if the article said where this thing was orbiting. But since there is a world of dumbasses I guess it doesn’t matter.
It’s between three and a half and two AU from the sun. For the uninformed an AU is the distance from the sun to the earth. So in other words it ain’t gonna hit us.
Looks like California seceded.
Youngsters just don’t understand.
You’re not truly living until you have an asteroid the size of New Jersey.
Immediately thinking “Meghan McCain”.
So Kleopatra has two moons? If they haven’t been named yet I suggest naming one for Julius Caesar and the other one for Marc Antony.
Knew about Caeser’s son. Looked up on wikidpedia and learned she had three children by Marc Antony.
Too late. They’re named; “AlexHelios and CleoSelene, after the Egyptian queen’s children.”
LOL
Marc Antony promised Cleopatra the sun and the moon and gave her a son named Helios and a daughter named Selene.
It is the 2nd ship from Rendezvous with Rama
It is out of control... : )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama
A little further information to help readers assess the distances the asteroid and its moons are at from the Sun:
The average Mars to Sun distance is 1.52 AU into two decimal points. The [distance] ranges between 1.38 AU and 1.666 AU depending on whether it is perihelion or aphelion respectively.
(Typographical error in source text corrected.)
Source: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/how-far-is-mars-from-the-sun.html
So, at 2 to 3.5 AU distance from the Sun, Kleopatra and it’s moons are between Mars and Jupiter (5.2 AU average) and, as you wrote, pose no threat to Earth.
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