Electra, the first quadruple asteroid discovered to travel in the galaxy

For years, humanity has shown a special interest in asteroids, those Celestial bodies that roam the galaxy. among them all, electra Perhaps the most magical thing.

Not for less. The Electra has the peculiarity of being a space rock that moves in… Solar System It is accompanied by three moons, making it the first quadrupedal asteroid recorded so far.

The latest discovery was made by a group of scientists, who published a milestone in their research in la revista Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“electra is the first tetragonal system ever discovered,” a team of astronomers led by Anthony Perdue The The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand.

“This new discovery shows that algorithms dedicated to data reduction and processing that represent hardware physics can push the limits of contrast even further.”

It is not uncommon asteroids You have smaller companions, although it is very rare to spot them. of more than One million one hundred thousand asteroids Of the discovered, more than 150 moons are known to be at least one.

electraIt was first discovered in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in 1873 by German astronomer Christian Friedrich, which is about 260 kilometers wide. Its first moon is called s/2003 (130) 1It wasn’t discovered until 2003, 130 years later. your second moon, 2014 (130) 1was discovered in 2014.

The reason why it takes so long to find these satellites is because Small asteroids And in the case of light, something unusual, they have very little. Anything smaller might revolve around a asteroid It would be weaker and weaker and possibly overwhelmed by the origin orb. Also, the smaller and closer the moon is to the asteroid, the more difficult it is to see. It is very similar to why it is difficult to see exoplanets directly. Spins other stars.