A Mercury crosser or Mercury grazer is an
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
whose
orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...
crosses that of
Mercury. The Mercury crossers proper have
aphelia outside Mercury's (0.4667 AU) and perihelia inside Mercury's (0.3075 AU), whereas those listed here as outer grazers have perihelia within Mercury's aphelion but not within its perihelion. All have
semi-major axes larger than Mercury's, and hence there are no known inner grazers.
List
Mercury crossers proper have
aphelia outside Mercury's (0.4667 AU) and perihelia inside Mercury's (0.3075 AU). , 362 Mercury crossers were known.
[List of asteroids with q<0.3075 AU generated by the JPL Small-Body Database Search Engine](_blank)
Retrieved 2012-05-30 (Most values have been rounded to three decimals.)
Mercury grazers
All Mercury grazers have semi-major axes larger than Mercury's (0.3871 AU), and hence are outer grazers, i.e. have perihelia within Mercury's aphelion (0.4667 AU) but not within its perihelion (0.3075 AU). , there are 561 Mercury grazers known.
[List of asteroids with 0.3075 AU](_blank)
Retrieved 2012-05-30 (Values have been rounded to three decimals.)
See also
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List of Earth-crossing minor planets
An Earth-crosser is a near-Earth asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Earth as observed from the ecliptic pole of Earth's orbit. The known numbered Earth-crossers are listed here. Those Earth-crossers whose semi-major axes are smaller than E ...
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List of Mars-crossing minor planets
A Mars-crossing asteroid (MCA, also Mars-crosser, MC) is an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars. Some Mars-crossers numbered below 100000 are listed here. They include the two numbered Mars trojans 5261 Eureka and .
Many databases, for ...
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List of Jupiter-crossing minor planets
A Jupiter-crosser is a minor planet whose orbit crosses that of Jupiter. Jupiter trojans can be inner grazers (105), outer grazers (52), co-orbitals (183), and crossers (537). Discounting them, there is one numbered, 7 non-numbered, and 19 cometary ...
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List of Saturn-crossing minor planets
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List of Uranus-crossing minor planets
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List of Neptune-crossing minor planets
References
External links
Very Close Approaches (<0.01 AU) of PHAs to Mercury 1900–2200Upcoming Close Approaches (<0.10 AU) of Near-Earth Objects to Mercury
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercury-crossing minor planets
Minor planet groups and families
Lists of minor planets
Asteroids
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
Crossing