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The majority of main belt asteroids follow slightly elliptical, stable orbits, revolving in the same direction as the Earth and taking from three to six years to complete a full circuit of the Sun. [4] Asteroids have historically been observed from Earth. The first close-up observation of an asteroid was made by the Galileo spacecraft.
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 largest of them, dubbed 2002 NV16, is 580ft (177m) across and will reach a minimum distance of 4.5 million km (2.8 million miles) from Earth at around 3.50pm UTC.
Apophis is no different from other asteroids in that it is a remnant from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. ... Apophis's orbit around the sun brings it ...
Asteroids of this size have an impact on Earth every few thousand years, ... The celestial object should be visible through early April and disappear as it continues on its orbit around the sun ...
Asteroids number in the hundreds of thousands. For longer lists, see list of exceptional asteroids, list of asteroids, or list of Solar System objects by size. Asteroid moons; A number of smaller groups distinct from the asteroid belt; The outer Solar System with the giant planets, their satellites, trojan asteroids and some minor planets. Jupiter
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] Small Solar System objects are classified by their orbits: [20] [21]