216 Kleopatra
main-belt asteroid
216 Kleopatra is a large M-type asteroid with a mean diameter of 120 kilometers (75 miles) and is noted for its elongate bone or dumbbell shape. It was discovered on 10 April 1880 by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at the Austrian Naval Pola Observatory, in what is now Pula, Croatia, and was named after Cleopatra VII, the famous Egyptian queen. It has two small minor-planet moons which were discovered in 2008 and later named Alexhelios and Cleoselene.
Orbit and classification
216 Kleopatra is a non-family asteroid from the main asteroid belt's background population. It orbits our Sun in the central asteroid belt at a distance of 2.1–3.5 AU once every 4 years and 8 months (1,706 days; semi-major axis of 2.79 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.25 and an inclination of 13° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Leipzig Observatory (534) on 20 April 1880, ten days after its official discovery observation at Pola Observatory.
Physical characteristics
Size and shape
Kleopatra is a relatively large asteroid, with a mean (volume-equivalent) diameter of 120±2 km and an unusually elongated shape.
The initial mapping of its elongated shape was indicated by stellar occultation observations from eight distinct locations on 19 January 1991. Subsequent observations with the ESO 3.6 m Telescope at La Silla, run by the European Southern Observatory, were interpreted to show a double source with two distinct lobes of similar size.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q147891. The Library of Congress control number is sh2001006621. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1880, 2008 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “216 Kleopatra” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.