An image showing the asteroid Kleopatra and its two small moons, AlexHelios and CleoSelene, based on data gathered in July 2017. (Image credit: ESO/Vernazza, Marchis et al./MISTRAL algorithm ...

Kleopatra, a dog-bone shaped asteroid named after the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt, is a pile of rubble that spawned twin moons about 100 million years ago, astronomers announced in a new study ...

Kleopatra is not just unusual for its shape, but also because it has two moons. The moons, named AlexHelios and CleoSelene (after the real Cleopatra’s children) were discovered in 2008.