Astronomers Find The Most Mysterious Asteroids, Shaped Like Bones

Bone-shaped asteroid 216 Cleopatra (Alchetron)

JAKARTA – Astronomers have discovered the most mysterious celestial body, a strange asteroid that has baffled scientists. The asteroid has a shape similar to the ham bone that dogs love, so it is fitting to be called the Dogus treatus. But astronomers named the strangely shaped asteroid 216 Kelopatra, after the legendary ancient Egyptian woman named Cleopatra.

Reporting from SputnikNews, an international team of astronomers has revealed detailed images of one of the most mysterious asteroids in the Solar System, 216 Cleopatra. The findings were obtained from observations using the Very Large Telescop located at the European Southern Observatory, located in Chile.

Astronomers observed the strange asteroid from different angles and then made a 3D model of it. "The team has obtained the sharpest and most detailed image of the asteroid Cleopatra," the ESO wrote on its official Twitter account @ESO.

From these findings, the researchers studied various forms of asteroids. 216 Cleopatra had a length of about 270 kilometers with a mass of about 2.97x10 to the power of 18 kilograms.

This data led the researchers to determine the density of the asteroid Cleopatra. Previously, scientists thought the celestial body was a metal asteroid. However, recent data reveal its density is about half the density of iron. That means the asteroid has a porous structure and is probably just a "heap of debris." They also revealed the asteroid was formed after a major collision.

Thanks to the findings of more detailed and sharp images, astronomers can more accurately determine the orbits of the moons of asteroids AlexHelios and CleoSelene. The asteroid moon was named after Cleopatra's children, Alexander Helios (Sun) and Cleopatra Selene (Moon).

The asteroid Cleopatra is a unique celestial body in the Solar System. The findings could help scientists to study the Solar System more deeply. This was revealed by the SETI Institute, Franck Marchis who is an asteroid researcher.

“Cleopatra was truly a unique object in our Solar System. Science makes a lot of progress thanks to the study of strange foreign bodies. I think Cleopatra is one of them and understanding this complex asteroid system can help us learn more about our Solar System," said Marchis.