The Alinda asteroids are a dynamical group of

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 ...

s with a

semi-major axis In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the longe ...

of about 2.5 AU and an

orbital eccentricity In astrodynamics, the orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is a dimensionless parameter that determines the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values be ...

approximately between 0.4 and 0.65.Minor planet groups/families
The namesake is 887 Alinda, discovered by

Max Wolf Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (21 June 1863 – 3 October 1932) was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-K� ...

in 1918. These objects are held in this region by the 3:1

orbital resonance In celestial mechanics, orbital resonance occurs when orbiting bodies exert regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually because their orbital periods are related by a ratio of small integers. Most commonly, this relation ...

with

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

(2.502 AU), which results in their being close to a 1:4 resonance with

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

(2.520 AU). An object in this resonance has its orbital eccentricity steadily increased by gravitational interactions with Jupiter until it eventually has a close encounter with an inner planet that breaks the resonance. Some Alindas have perihelia very close to

's orbit, resulting in a series of close encounters at almost exactly four-year intervals, due to the 1:4 near resonance. One consequence of this is that if an Alinda asteroid happens to be in an unfavorable position for viewing at the time of its close approach to Earth (for instance, at a small elongation from the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

), then this situation can persist for decades. Indeed, as of 2010, the Alinda asteroid 1915 Quetzálcoatl had been observed only once since 1985. Another consequence is that some of these asteroids make repeated relatively close approaches to Earth, making them good subjects for study by Earth-based

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

. Examples are 4179 Toutatis and 6489 Golevka, as well as 2019 MO, which impacted Earth in June 2019.

Dynamic age

The 3:1 resonance with Jupiter causes a repeating growth in the eccentricity of the asteroid's orbit. Dynamically young members have an eccentricity ranging from about 0.30 to 0.34 staying mostly in the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

ranging 1.7–3.4 AU from the Sun. Older members such as 8709 Kadlu have an eccentricities between 0.465 and 0.475 and cross the orbit of Mars. (8709 Kadlu makes approaches close enough to Jupiter, Mars, and Earth to be gravitationally nudged.) The oldest members with eccentricities between 0.57 and 0.75 cross the orbit of Earth. 3360 Syrinx is the most eccentric of the Alinda group with an eccentricity of 0.7 and the orbit has a dynamically short life expectancy.

List of members

References

{{Small Solar System bodies * Asteroid groups and families

Dynamic age

List of members

See also

References