Griqua asteroid

The Griqua asteroids (also known as the "Griquas") are a dynamical group of asteroids with marginally unstable orbits. The group derives its name from the asteroid 1362 Griqua. The Griquas are located in the Hecuba gap – one of the largest Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt at 3.27 AU – and stay in a 2:1 mean motion resonance with the gas giant Jupiter, which gradually perturbes their orbits over a long period until they either intersect with the orbit of Mars or Jupiter itself. The group has an estimated lifetime of 100 to 500 million years.

Beyond the Griquas and the Hecuba gap are the Cybele asteroid, located at 3.27–3.7 AU, followed by the Hilda asteroids and the Jupiter trojans.

Description

Griqua asteroids orbit the Sun between 3.1 and 3.27 AU. Asteroids in this group have eccentricities greater than 0.35.[1][2][3]

Members

Known members of the Griqua group include (articles in boldface):[4]:422

Strongly unstable group

Related but distinct from the Griquas, is the unnamed group of "strongly unstable" resonant asteroids:[4]:422,423

Zhongguo asteroids

While the Griquas are asteroids in a marginally unstable orbit, the Zhongguo asteroids (or "Zhongguos"; named after 3789 Zhongguo) are in a rather stable 1:2 resonance with Jupiter. The group of 26 identified members, with a lifetime of more than 530 million years, can be further divided into two clusters in the pseudo-proper element space:[4]:423

References

  1. ↑ EasySky - Screenshots
  2. ↑ Minor planet groups/families Archived 2010-11-28 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ MPEC 2004-J28 : UNUSUAL MINOR PLANETS (2004 MAY 15.0 TT)
  4. 1 2 3 Roig, F.; Nesvorný, D.; Ferraz-Mello, S. (September 2002). "Asteroids in the 2 : 1 resonance with Jupiter: dynamics and size distribution [ Erratum: 2002MNRAS.336.1391R ]". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 335 (2): 417–431. Bibcode:2002MNRAS.335..417R. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05635.x. Retrieved 31 March 2017.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.