Giant metal dog bone in space.. with moons!!

[wired2moon]

Just came across this and had to share...

A dog-bone-shaped asteroid?s two moons: Kleopatra,... | The Dark Side of the Force

It's a huge metal dog bone shaped asteroid spinning in space! It even has 2 moons!! Now that rock rocks

[Daniel-K]

that is pretty cool!

[dtr42]

just out of sight there's a great big dog chasing it [probably viewed near canis major:)]

[wired2moon]

Seems there are a few odd ones out there - The 7 Strangest Asteroids: Weird Space Rocks in Our Solar System | Asteroids Apophis, Ceres & Vesta | Dawn Mission to Vesta &Ceres | Space.com - but the giant dog bone is the best

[lawsio]

Is such a thing visible for us mortals?

[wired2moon]

Lol... Wouldn't it be something to look into your eyepiece and see that!

Highly doubtful I'm afraid - even if you had a big enough scope knowing where to point it would be nontrivial.

[JamesF]

It's an interesting question and my immediate reaction was the same as Zero-G.

However, looking at the wikipedia page for the asteroid, that says it was discovered in 1880 and that immediately made me wonder exactly how big a telescope was used. The wikipedia page for the discoverer suggests that during the period when he was in Pula in Austria (when he discovered this asteroid) he used a six inch refractor.

So perhaps it might be visible, after all?

James

[Atlas]

Definatly need to track that sucker, We'll have to see if we can get coordinates for it.

[wired2moon]

Sounds like the celestial bone hunt is afoot!

Would certainly be cool to see (or better still image) it, especially if its dog bone-ness can be resolved

[Sam]

My dog would love that, it always amazes me the different shapes and objects that are up there. thanks for posting the link.

[JamesF]

I don't think you'll be able to make out its shape. The wikipedia page (again) says that was finally done with a 2.4m telescope with adaptive optics.

James

[Atlas]

This may help.

JPL Small-Body Database Browser

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi?CGISESSID=5b703eb3ae95104583d56b7967c0c956#results

[jonathan]

I'm still hopeful that I will one day see this through my scope...

[wired2moon]

Best time to see that's after a heavy session down the boozer..