Asteroid Elektra orbited by three moons, VLT image

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Very Large Telescope (VLT) image taken in 2016 showing the asteroid Elektra (large centre, grey) orbited by three moons. This makes Elektra the first ever quadruple asteroid system to be detected by scientists. The moons orbiting Elektra have been named S/2014 (130) 2 (bottom), S/2014 (130) 1 (centre left) and S/2003 (130) 1 (top left). Observations taken with the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT).

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Size: 3000px × 3000px
Location:
Photo credit: © EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, /2003, 2, 130, 2016, asteroid, astronomical, astronomy, ball, belt, elektra, exoplanet, globe, high-contrast, moonlet, moons, quadruple, research, s1, s2, s3, satellites, space, spectro-polarimetric, sphere, spherical, system