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> Triple system of asteroids -Artwork

Triple system of asteroids -Artwork

author: ESO/Novapix

reference: a-ast99-00010

Image Size 300 DPI: 33 * 25 cm

Two small asteroids are orbiting a larger one known since 1866 as 87 Sylvia. Sylvia is measuring 380 x 260 x 230 km; its moons are considerably smaller, orbiting in nearly circular orbits and in the same plane and direction. The closest and newly discovered moonlet, orbiting about 710 km from Sylvia, is Remus, a body only 7 km across and circling Sylvia every 33 hours. The second, Romulus, orbits at about 1360 km in 87.6 hours and measures about 18 km across. The asteroid 87 Sylvia is one of the largest known from the asteroid main belt, and is located about 3.5 times further away from the Sun than the Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Keywords for this photo:

ASTEROID - ASTEROID BELT - ASTRONOMY - ILLUSTRATION - REMUS - ROMULUS - STAR - SUN - SYLVIA -