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The orbital distribution of the asteroids reaches a maximum at an eccentricity around 0.07 and an inclination below 4°. [67] Thus, although a typical asteroid has a relatively circular orbit and lies near the plane of the ecliptic , some asteroid orbits can be highly eccentric or travel well outside the ecliptic plane.
The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each trojan librates around one of Jupiter's stable Lagrange points: either L 4, existing 60° ahead of the planet in its orbit, or L 5, 60° behind.
The Grand tack hypothesis explains how in the Solar System giant planets migrated in unique way to form the Solar System belts and near circular orbit of planets around the Sun. [10] [11] [9] The Solar System's belts are one key parameters for a Solar System that can support complex life, as circular orbits are a parameter needed for the ...
Asteroids are given minor planet numbers, but not all minor planets are asteroids. Minor planet numbers are also given to objects of the Kuiper belt , which is similar to the asteroid belt but farther out (around 30–60 AU), whereas asteroids are mostly between 2–3 AU from the Sun or at the orbit of Jupiter 5 AU from the Sun.
Lucy's main targets are the so-called Trojans, swarms of unexplored asteroids out near Jupiter that are considered to be time capsules from the dawn of the solar system. The spacecraft will swing ...
The first asteroid to be photographed in close-up was 951 Gaspra in 1991, followed in 1993 by 243 Ida and its moon Dactyl, all of which were imaged by the Galileo probe en route to Jupiter. Other asteroids briefly visited by spacecraft en route to other destinations include 9969 Braille (by Deep Space 1 in 1999), 5535 Annefrank (by Stardust in ...
The asteroids are like fossils themselves, representing the leftover material hanging around after the formation of giant planets in our solar system, including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
The Hilda asteroids (adj. Hildian) are a dynamical group of more than 6,000 asteroids located beyond the asteroid belt but within Jupiter's orbit, in a 3:2 orbital resonance with Jupiter. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The namesake is the asteroid 153 Hilda .