216 Kleopatra

Kleopatra is a main belt asteroid that was discovered by Johann Palisa in 1880. It is named after Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt.

Kleopatra has one of the most bizarre shapes in the solar system. A team of astronomers at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. By bouncing radar signals off the asteroid, they were able to develop a computer model of its shape, and discovered that it looks like a dog's bone. The best explanation is that two similarly sized asteroids that have collided and stuck together instead of breaking apart. Another such binary may be 315 Hektor.

Kleopatra is a relatively large asteroid, measuring 217 x 94 x 81 km. In composition it is an M-type asteroid, meaning that it is metallic, composed of nickel-iron. It is believed to be a loosely packed, porous object.