This
raw, unprocessed, adaptive optics image of asteroid 90 Antiope was
obtained in August 2000 at the Keck Observatory.
The sizes of the two separate components of Antiope are not as large,
relative to the 160 km distance between them as it appears. In a
conventional telescopic photograph, the two objects would appear
to be one big, blurry blob.
The asteroid pair was once assumed to be a single body, called Antiope,
orbiting the sun in the outer parts of the asteroid belt between
the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
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