Kleopatra: The Metallic Doggy Bone
This is a series of radar images (using reflected radar waves, not light!) showing the asteroid Kleopatra tumbling in its orbit. Light and radar measurements indicate that this asteroid is largely made of metal, presumably the same iron-nickel alloys that make up our iron meteorites, and that metal is arranged not as a single block like an earthly dumb bell, but instead as a series of larger solid metal fragments and loose metallic rubble held together by the weak gravity of the asteroid. The weird dumb-bell shape of this asteroid is mysterious, but it may have to do with a past collision.
Image credit and caption information: press release, NASA's National Space Science Data Center
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