spacetoday.net: space news from around the webin association with SpaceNews


Triple asteroid discovered
Posted: Mon, Aug 15, 2005, 8:51 AM ET (1251 GMT)
Sylvia asteroid moons illustration (ESO) Astronomers announced last week that they have discovered the solar system's first "triple" asteroid, a large asteroid with two smaller moons. Observations of the asteroid 87 Sylvia by ESO's Very Large Telescope revealed that the large asteroid has two smaller objects orbiting it. One, named Remus, is 7 kilometers across and orbits 710 km from Sylvia; the other, Romulus, is 18 km across and orbits 1360 km away. While moons have been found orbiting several asteroids, this is the first asteroid known to have two moons. Astronomers used the moons to compute Sylvia's mass and density, finding that the asteroid has a density only 20% greater than water, suggesting that it is made primarily of water ice and rubble, with up to 60% void space.
<<previous article   next article>>
news in brief
Starship explodes during preparations for static-fire test
Posted: Sun, Jun 22 6:52 AM ET (1052 GMT)

French government leads investment in Eutelsat
Posted: Sat, Jun 21 8:38 AM ET (1238 GMT)

NASA further delays Ax-4 launch
Posted: Sat, Jun 21 8:34 AM ET (1234 GMT)

news links
Thursday, July 3
SpaceX double launch lights up Florida sky, but most Volusia beachgoers don't notice
Daytona Beach (FL) News-Journal — 2:39 am ET (0639 GMT)


about spacetoday.net   ·   info@spacetoday.net   ·   mailing list