Atrophy – A European telescope in Chile was able to observe the most bizarre shape of a large rock body known since the late 19th century.
When the Austrian astronomer Johann Balisa discovered the asteroid named Cleopatra two years later by his country’s astronomical community in 1880, he was still unaware that he had fallen into a cosmic “bone” 200 km long. A “bone” emerges today thanks to the observations made by the sphere, a French-designed instrument installed in Chile on the largest telescope of the European Southern Laboratory. Images subject to two publications in the press Astronomy & Astronomical Physics. But let us go back a little to Cleopatra’s long history to better understand what these new pictures tell us about this extraordinary object.
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At the time of its discovery at the end of the XIXe Century, nothing special about the asteroid. This is only a great point to move in the sky like the planets. At the time, experts spoke more easily. “Small planetsDespite the word “asteroid” (actually)
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