Friday, March 4, 2011

Main Belt Asteroids with Moons

Of the many asteroids that have satellites, few are given proper names. Most minor planet moons are classified by the year they were found. Some of the better known asteroid and moon pairs with names are

Ida and its moon Dactyl
Kalliope and its moon Linus
Sylvia and its moons Remus and Romulus
Kleopatra and its moons Alexhelios and Cleoselene
Eugenia and its moons Petit-Prince and the less charmingly named S/2004 (45) 1