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Approximately one-third of the asteroids in the asteroid belt are members of an asteroid family. These share similar orbital elements, such as semi-major axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination as well as similar spectral features, which indicate a common origin in the breakup of a larger body. Graphical displays of these element pairs, for ...
The asteroid and comet belts orbit the Sun from the inner rocky planets into outer parts of the Solar System, interstellar space. [16] [17] [18] An astronomical unit, or AU, is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is approximately 150 billion meters (93 million miles). [19]
intermediate main-belt (2.5 AU < a < 2.82 AU) outer main-belt (a > 2.82 AU) A plot of inner solar system asteroids and planets as of 2006 May 9, in a manner that exposes the Kirkwood gaps. Similar to the position plot, planets (with trajectories) are orange, Jupiter being the outer most in this view. Various asteroid classes are colour coded ...
Over 200 asteroids are known to be larger than 100 km, [45] and a survey in the infrared wavelengths has shown that the asteroid belt has between 700,000 and 1.7 million asteroids with a diameter of 1 km or more. [46] The absolute magnitudes of most of the known asteroids are between 11 and 19, with the median at about 16. [47]
The Kuiper belt and Neptune may be treated as a marker of the extent of the Solar System, alternatives being the heliopause and the distance at which the Sun's gravitational influence is matched by that of other stars (estimated to be between 50 000 AU and 125 000 AU). [22]
The average distance to the Moon (or lunar distance (LD)) is about 384,400 km (238,900 mi), which is around 30 times the diameter of the Earth. [3] Below are lists of close approaches less than one LD for a given year. (See also near-Earth asteroids and NEO Earth Close Approaches.)
Due to its high inclination, and contrary to all other Cybele asteroids, Cincinnati is the only one that is above the center of the ν 6 secular resonance with Saturn. [ 4 ] : 2 The asteroid's high inclination and eccentricity also results in a Tisserand's parameter (T Jupiter ) of 2.719, which makes it a true asteroid in cometary orbit (ACO ...
As a result of the aforementioned 1977 occultation, a small moon around Hebe was reported by Paul D. Maley. [20] It was nicknamed "Jebe". This was the first modern-day suggestion that asteroids have satellites. It was 17 years later when the first asteroid moon was formally discovered (Dactyl, the satellite of 243 Ida). The discovery of Hebe's ...