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Astronomers Find First Quadruple Asteroid After Reviewing Old Data
A trio of researchers from the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Université de Lyon, and Sorbonne Université have discovered the first quadruple asteroid system after reviewing archival data.
The asteroid Elektra was first discovered by astronomer Christian Peters in 1873. It is located in the outer part of the asteroid belt that resides between Mars and Jupiter and is estimated to be 260 km across. It wasn’t until 2003 that astronomers discovered that it had a companion asteroid, a moon, orbiting it. Later, in 2014, a second asteroid moon was discovered.
The researchers that made the discovery of this quadruple asteroid were reviewing old data from the Very Large Telescope in Chile. They decided to focus on Elektra and its two moons, running images of the system through noise reduction software, and then through an algorithm that is designed to remove light halos surrounding objects. In this case, the algorithm removed a light halo surrounding the asteroid Elektra.
The data that was left after being run through the noise reduction software and algorithm showed a third moon orbiting Elektra that had not been visible previously. This surprised the team, as a system like this has never been discovered before.
