Drie is te veel
Tussen Mars en Jupiter liggen enkele overblijfselen van het vroege zonnestelsel: de asteroïdengordel. Deze gordel zit vol met ongewone asteroïden waarvan de oorsprong de bouwstenen van de vroege aardachtige planeten onthult. Een van de meest intrigerende asteroïden is Elektra, hier afgebeeld door middel van het SPHERE-instrument aan ESO's Very Large Telescope in Paranal, Chili.
Het was al bekend dat rond Elektra niet één maar twee manen draaien, hier weergegeven door de oranje en groene banen. Maar nu heeft een team van astronomen, geleid door Anthony Berdeu, van het National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, nóg een satelliet gevonden die rond de asteroïde draait - weergegeven met de blauwe baan. Deze ontdekking maakt Elektra het allereerste viervoudige asteroïdesysteem dat we kennen.
Dit nieuwe, derde maantje van Elektra, voorlopig S/2014 (130) 2 genoemd, ligt dichter bij de moederasteroïde dan de andere manen. Ze draait op een gemiddelde afstand van iets minder dan 350 km en is 15000 keer zwakker dan Elektra. Het team gebruikte vrij beschikbare gegevens uit het ESO-wetenschappelijk archief en een nieuwe verwerkingstechniek om deze kleine maan te zichtbaar te maken. De ontdekking zal astronomen helpen begrijpen hoe deze satellieten ontstaan en daarmee cruciale informatie leveren over de vorming van planeten en de evolutie van ons eigen zonnestelsel.
SPHERE, het Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch-instrument, is een krachtig apparaat om planeten te vinden. Het maakt gebruik van een extreem adaptief optisch systeem dat realtime correcties mogelijk maakt van turbulentie in onze atmosfeer die sterren doet fonkelen. Alleen met de gevoeligheid en het oplossend vermogen van SPHERE, in combinatie met geavanceerde gegevensverwerkingstechnieken, kon het team de nieuwste satelliet van Elektra ontdekken.
Link
Credit:ESO/Berdeu et al., Yang et al.
Over de video
Id: | potw2207a |
Taal: | nl-be |
Publicatiedatum: | 14 februari 2022 06:00 |
Duur: | 16 s |
Frame rate: | 25 fps |
Over het object
Naam: | (130) Elektra |
Type: | Unspecified : Interplanetary Body : Asteroid |
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