Asteroid 2001 SN263 has been revealed as the first near-Earth triple asteroid with three bodies orbiting each other. The discovery was made by Michael C. Nolan and his colleagues when they obtained radar images on February 11, realizing that the three objects, about 7 million miles from Earth were rotating around each other.
Other triple asteroids exist in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) and beyond, but this is the first near-Earth system where the actual shapes of objects can be clearly seen.
Nolan said this discovery prompts several important questions: Are the objects orbiting in the same plane? How rapidly are the orbits changing with time? Did the moons form when this asteroid formed in the main asteroid belt, or after it arrived in near-Earth space?
The full article: http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6622
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