| WW31:
Hubble images motion
of its satellite |
13.2
|
 |
A
time series of six Hubble Space Telescope views of 1998 WW31 made by superimposing
successive images of the main body, to reveal the relative orbital motion
of its satellite. |
| Go
to Full Text |
 |
 |
| Image
Credit: NASA
and C. Veillet (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope). |
|
|
| A
time series of six Hubble Space Telescope views of 1998 WW31 made by superimposing
successive images of the main body, to reveal the relative orbital motion
of its satellite. Orbital eccentricity is about 0.8. In reality, both objects
orbit their common centre of mass (barycentre). The two bodies are much
more similar in size than implied by their relative brightnesses on this
image, because the brightness of the main body has been exaggerated sixfold
by the summing. |
 |
|
|
|
Return
to top of page |