A new triple asteroid discovered in the Main Belt

Adapted from http://www.imcce.fr/page.php?nav=en/actualites/actu.php

Published in March 13 2007

Researchers from University of California at Berkeley and IMCCE have discovered a second moon orbiting the asteroid 45 Eugenia. This body was the first around which a satellite, named Petit-Prince, was observed from the ground in 1998.

This new result has been obtained by analyzing three images acquired in February 2004 from the 8 m VLT telescope "YEPUN" at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. This second moon is provisonaly named S/2004 (45) 1. Its size is about 6 km.

After the discover of the triple asteroid 87 Sylvia (in Feb. 2005), 45 Eugenia is the second triple asteroid discovered between Mars and Jupiter in the Main Belt.