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The Largest Asteroids Imaged by SPHERE The Very Large Telescope in Chile has an instrument named SPHERE, designed to image extrasolar planets, which can also resolve details on minor planets within our solar system. In October, scientists announced that SPHERE images revealed fourth-largest asteroid 10 Hygiea to be round, implying that it is a dwarf planet. All 4 images above were taken with SPHERE. ESO/P. Vernazza et al./MISTRAL algorithm (ONERA/CNRS)