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Damocloid
Damocloids are a class of minor planets such as 5335 Damocles and 1996 PW that have Halley-type or long-period highly eccentric orbits typical of periodic comets such as Halley's Comet, but without showing a cometary coma or tail. David Jewitt defines a damocloid as an object with a Jupiter Tisserand invariant (TJ) of 2 or less, while Akimasa Nakamura defines this group with the following orbital elements: * q 8.0 AU, and e > 0.75, * or alternatively, ''i'' > 90 ° However, this definition that does not focus on Jupiter excludes objects such as , , and . Using the Tisserand's parameter with respect to Jupiter of 2 or less, there are currently 220 damocloid candidates . Of these objects, 189 have orbital observation arcs greater than 30 days providing reasonably decent orbits. Their average radius is eight kilometers assuming an albedo of 0.04. The albedos of four damocloids have been measured, and they are among the darkest objects known in the Solar System. Damoc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
5335 Damocles
(5335) Damocles , provisional designation , is a centaur and the namesake of the damocloids, a group of minor planets which may be inactive nuclei of the Halley-type and long-period comets. It was discovered on 18 February 1991, by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. It is named after Damocles, a figure of Greek mythology. Description When Damocles was discovered, it was found to be on an orbit completely different from all others known. Damocles's orbit reached from inside the aphelion of Mars to as far as Uranus. It seemed to be in transition from a near-circular outer Solar System orbit to an eccentric orbit taking it to the inner Solar System. Duncan Steel, Gerhard Hahn, Mark Bailey, and David Asher carried out projections of its long-term dynamical evolution, and found a good probability that it will become an Earth-crosser asteroid, and may spend a quarter of its life in such an orbit. Damocles has a stable orbit for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
343158 Marsyas
343158 Marsyas ( provisional designation: ) is an asteroid on a retrograde orbit, classified as a large near-Earth object of the Apollo group. It may be an extinct comet or damocloid asteroid. The asteroid was discovered on 29 April 2009, by astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey at the Catalina Station near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. Approximately in diameter, it makes many close approaches to Earth, Venus, and Mars at a very high relative velocity. It was named after the satyr Marsyas from Greek mythology. Classification and orbit Marsyas was initially listed as a potentially hazardous asteroid. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 6 May 2009. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.49–4.6 AU once every 4.02 years (1,467 days; semi-major axis of 2.53 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.81 and an inclination of 154 ° with respect to the ecliptic. Retrograde Marsyas has a retrograde orbit and thus orbits the Sun in the opposite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jupiter Tisserand Invariant
Tisserand's parameter (or Tisserand's invariant) is a number calculated from several orbital elements (semi-major axis, orbital eccentricity, and inclination) of a relatively small object and a larger " perturbing body". It is used to distinguish different kinds of orbits. The term is named after French astronomer Félix Tisserand who derived it and applies to restricted three-body problems in which the three objects all differ greatly in mass. Definition For a small body with semi-major axis a\,\!, orbital eccentricity e\,\!, and orbital inclination i\,\!, relative to the orbit of a perturbing larger body with semimajor axis a_P, the parameter is defined as follows: :T_P\ = \frac + 2\cos i\sqrt Tisserand invariant conservation In the three-body problem, the quasi-conservation of Tisserand's invariant is derived as the limit of the Jacobi integral away from the main two bodies (usually the star and planet). Numerical simulations show that the Tisserand invariant of orbit-cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1996 PW
is an exceptionally eccentric trans-Neptunian object and a damocloid on an orbit typical of long-period comets but one that showed no sign of cometary activity around the time it was discovered. The unusual object measures approximately in diameter and has a rotation period of 35.4 hours and likely an elongated shape. Description orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.5–504 AU once every 4,033 years ( semi-major axis of 253 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.99 and an inclination of 30 ° with respect to the ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of Earth's orbit, Earth around the Sun. It was a central concept in a number of ancient sciences, providing the framework for key measurements in astronomy, astrology and calendar-making. Fr .... Simulations indicate that it has most likely come from the Oort cloud, with a roughly equal probability of being an extinct comet and a rocky body that was originally scattered into the O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Minor-planet Groups
A minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid. It is customary to name a group of asteroids after the first member of that group to be discovered, which is often the largest. Groups out to the orbit of Earth There are relatively few asteroids that orbit close to the Sun. Several of these groups are hypothetical at this point in time, with no members having yet been discovered; as such, the names they have been given are provisional. * Vulcanoid asteroids are hypothetical asteroids that orbit entirely within the orbit of Mercury (planet), Mercury (have an aphelion of less than 0.3874 AU). A few searches for vulcanoids have been conducted but none have been discovered so far. * ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim asteroids (previously named Vatira) are asteroids that orbit entirely within the orbit of Venus (have an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinct Comet
An extinct comet is a comet that has expelled most of its volatile ice and has little left to form a tail and coma. In a dormant comet, rather than being depleted, any remaining volatile components have been sealed beneath an inactive surface layer. Due to the near lack of a coma and tail, an extinct or dormant comet may resemble an asteroid rather than a comet and blur the distinction between these two classes of small Solar System bodies. When volatile materials such as nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide, ammonia, hydrogen and methane in the comet nucleus have evaporated away, all that remains is an inert rock or rubble pile. A comet may go through a transition phase as it comes close to extinction. Nature of extinct comets Extinct comets are those that have expelled most of their volatile ice and have little left to form a tail or coma. Over time, most of the volatile material contained in a comet nucleus evaporates away, and the comet becomes a small, dark, inert lump of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comet Nucleus
The nucleus is the solid, central part of a comet, formerly termed a ''dirty snowball'' or an ''icy dirtball''. A cometary nucleus is composed of rock, dust, and frozen gases. When heated by the Sun, the gases sublime and produce an atmosphere surrounding the nucleus known as the coma. The force exerted on the coma by the Sun's radiation pressure and solar wind cause an enormous tail to form, which points away from the Sun. A typical comet nucleus has an albedo of 0.04. This is blacker than coal, and may be caused by a covering of dust. Results from the ''Rosetta'' and ''Philae'' spacecraft show that the nucleus of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has no magnetic field, which suggests that magnetism may not have played a role in the early formation of planetesimals. Further, the ALICE spectrograph on ''Rosetta'' determined that electrons (within above the comet nucleus) produced from photoionization of water molecules by solar radiation, and not photons from the Sun as thou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
20461 Dioretsa
20461 Dioretsa is a Centaur (minor planet), centaur and damocloid on a retrograde orbit, retrograde, cometary-like orbit from the outer Solar System. It was discovered on 8 June 1999, by members of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research, LINEAR team at the Lincoln Laboratory Experimental Test Site near Socorro, New Mexico, United States. The highly eccentric Unusual minor planet, unusual object measures approximately in diameter. It was named ''dioretsa'', an anadrome of "asteroid". Classification and orbit Dioretsa is a member of the damocloids, with a retrograde orbit and a negative Tisserand's parameter, TJupiter of −1.547. It is also a Centaur (minor planet), centaur, as its orbit has a semi-major axis in between that of Jupiter (5.5 Astronomical unit, AU) Neptune (30.1 AU). The Minor Planet Center lists it as a critical object and (other) unusual minor planet due to an orbital eccentricity of more than 0.5. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.4–45.4&nbs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Observation Arc
In observational astronomy, the observation arc (or arc length) of a Solar System body is the time period between its earliest and latest observations, used for tracing the body's path. It is usually given in days or years. The term is mostly used in the discovery and tracking of asteroids and comets. Arc length has the greatest influence on the accuracy of an orbital estimate. The number, spacing of intermediate observations, and timestamps have a lesser effect. Short arcs A very short arc leaves a high uncertainty parameter. The object might be in one of many different orbits, at many distances from Earth. In some cases, the initial arc was too short to determine if the object was in orbit around the Earth, or orbiting out in the asteroid belt. With a 1-day observation arc, was thought to be a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet, but is now known to be a 1 km main-belt asteroid. With an observation arc of 3 days, was thought to be a Mars-crossing asteroid that could be a thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albedo
Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation). ''Surface albedo'' is defined as the ratio of Radiosity (radiometry), radiosity ''J''e to the irradiance ''E''e (flux per unit area) received by a surface. The proportion reflected is not only determined by properties of the surface itself, but also by the spectral and angular distribution of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface. These factors vary with atmospheric composition, geographic location, and time (see position of the Sun). While directional-hemispherical reflectance factor is calculated for a single angle of incidence (i.e., for a given position of the Sun), albedo is the directional integration of reflectance over all solar angles in a given period. The temporal resolution may range from seconds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar System" and "solar system" structures in theinaming guidelines document. The name is commonly rendered in lower case ('solar system'), as, for example, in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' an''Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary''. is the gravitationally bound Planetary system, system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. It Formation and evolution of the Solar System, formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, forming the Sun and a protoplanetary disc. The Sun is a typical star that maintains a hydrostatic equilibrium, balanced equilibrium by the thermonuclear fusion, fusion of hydrogen into helium at its stellar core, core, releasing this energy from its outer photosphere. As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Retrograde Motion
Retrograde motion in astronomy is, in general, orbital or rotational motion of an object in the direction opposite the rotation of its primary, that is, the central object (right figure). It may also describe other motions such as precession or nutation of an object's rotational axis. Prograde or direct motion is more normal motion in the same direction as the primary rotates. However, "retrograde" and "prograde" can also refer to an object other than the primary if so described. The direction of rotation is determined by an inertial frame of reference, such as distant fixed stars. In the Solar System, the orbits around the Sun of all planets and dwarf planets and most small Solar System bodies, except many comets and few distant objects, are prograde. They orbit around the Sun in the same direction as the sun rotates about its axis, which is counterclockwise when observed from above the Sun's north pole. Except for Venus and Uranus, planetary rotations around their a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
