Kleopatra Asteroid

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Asteroid 216 Kleopatra, situated in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, measures approximately 217 kilometers (135 miles) in length and about 94 kilometers (58 miles) in width, roughly equivalent to the size of New Jersey. This elongated asteroid displays a dog bone shape, a probable relic from an ancient, catastrophic cosmic collision. Kleopatra is among several dozen asteroids whose coloring indicates they contain metal. A team of astronomers utilizing the 305-meter (1,000-foot) telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico successfully bounced encoded radio signals off Kleopatra. By employing sophisticated computer analysis techniques, they decoded the echoes, transformed them into images, and constructed a detailed computer model of the asteroid's shape.