#europeansouthernobservatory

#europeansouthernobservatory

Strange 160 Mile-Long Kleopatra Asteroid is Shaped like a 'Dog-Bone' and Has Two Small MoonsA team of astronomers has captured the most detailed images of the asteroid Kleopatra. Thanks to photographs taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), experts were able to determine the 3D shape and mass of the asteroid.Initial sightings of the celestial object made scientists conclude that the asteroid is shaped like a dog bone. In addition, the said asteroid has moons orbiting around it. Astronomer Frank Marchis and his colleagues named the moons AlexHelios and CleoSelene, after the Egyptian queen’s children when they initially discovered their existence in 2008. Using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument on ESO’s VLT, astronomers viewed Kleopatra from different angles to create the most accurate 3D model to date. From the model, experts were able to determine the length of the asteroid to be about 270 kilometers. In addition, one of its lobes was larger than the other.Image credit: European Southern Observatory #Astronomy #Asteroids #Kleopatra #EuropeanSouthernObservatory #VeryLargeTelescope #Space

Astronomers Found a Moon-Forming Disc Around an Exoplanet 400 Light-Year AwayYou've probably seen images of circumplanetary disc - or ring of matter that orbit a planet - on the cover of imaginative sci-fi novels before, but astronomers have finally captured the first image of such actual disc around a planet outside of our solar system.Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, astronomer Myriam Benisty and colleagues observed a disc surrounding the exoplanet PDS 70c, a giant Jupiter-like planet orbiting a star 400 light-years away."Our ALMA observations were obtained at such exquisite resolution that we could clearly identify that the disc is associated with the planet and we are able to constrain its size for the first time," Benisty said in a statement by the European Southern Observatory.Astronomers noted that the disc surrounding PDS 70c is huge: it's about 500 times larger than Saturn's rings.Circumplanetary discs are thought to play a significant role in the formation of moons and satellites, as its gas and dust come together into progressively larger bodies through multiple collisions, ultimately becoming moons.Images:ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Benisty et al.#circumplanetarydisc #ALMA #astronomy #astrophysics #EuropeanSouthernObservatory #PDS70c #planet #exoplanet #moonformingdisc