Vatira-class near-Earth objects (NEOs) have orbits entirely interior to the orbit of Venus with aphelia $0.307<Q<0.718$ AU. Recently discovered asteroid 2020 AV$_2$ by the Zwicky Transient Facility on 4 January 2020 is the first known object on a Vatira orbit. Numerical integrations of 2020 AV$_2$'s nominal orbit show it remaining in the Vatira region for the next few hundred kyr before coupling to Venus and evolving onto an Atira orbit (NEOs entirely interior to Earth's orbit with $0.718<Q<0.983$ AU) and eventually scattering out to Earth-crossing. The numerical integrations of 9900 clones within 2020 AV$_2$'s orbital uncertainty region show examples of Vatira orbits trapped in the 3:2 mean-motion resonance with Venus at semimajor axis $a\approx0.552$ AU that can survive on the order of a few Myr. Possible 2020 AV$_2$ orbits also include those on Vatira orbits between Mercury and Venus that only rarely cross that of a planet. Together the 3:2 resonance and these rarely-planet-crossing orbits provide a meta-stable region of phase space that are stable on timescales of several Myr. If 2020 AV$_2$ is currently in this meta-stable region (or was in the past), that may explain its discovery as the first Vatira and may be where more are discovered.
Orbiting the Sun at an average distance of 0.59 au and with the shortest aphelion of any known minor body, at 0.77 au, the Atira-class asteroid 2019 AQ3 may be an orbital outlier or perhaps an early indication of the presence of a new population of objects: those following orbits entirely encompassed within that of Venus, the so-called Vatiras. Here, we explore the orbital evolution of 2019 AQ3 within the context of the known Atiras to show that, like many of them, it displays a present-day conspicuous coupled oscillation of the values of eccentricity and inclination, but no libration of the v…
Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) that orbit the Sun on or within Earth's orbit are tricky to detect for Earth-based observers due to their proximity to the Sun in the sky. These small bodies hold clues to the dynamical history of the inner solar system as well as the physical evolution of planetesimals in extreme environments. Populations in this region include the Atira and Vatira asteroids, as well as Venus and Earth co-orbital asteroids. Here we present a twilight search for these small bodies, conducted using the 1.2-m Oschin Schmidt and the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) camera at Palomar Obser…
Asteroids having perihelion distance $q$ $<$ 1.3 AU are classified as near-Earth objects (NEOs), which are divided into different sub-groups: Vatira-class, Atira-class, Aten-class, Apollo-class, and Amor-class. 2020 $AV_2$, the first Vatira (Orbiting totally inside Venus' orbit) was discovered by the Twilight project of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) on January 4, 2020. Upon the discovery of 2020 $AV_2$, a couple of orbital studies of the short-term orbital evolution of 2020 $AV_2$ have been performed and published (e.g. de la Fuente Marcos & de la Fuente Marcos 2020; Greenstreet 2020). I…
The innermost section of the Solar system has not been extensively studied because minor bodies moving inside Earth's orbit tend to spend most of their sidereal orbital periods at very low solar elongation, well away from the areas more frequently observed by programs searching for near-Earth objects. The survey carried out from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is the first one that has been able to detect multiple asteroids well detached from the direct gravitational perturbation of the Earth-Moon system. ZTF discoveries include 2019 AQ3 and 2019 LF6, two Atiras with the shortest periods a…
The first known asteroid with the orbit inside that of Venus is 2020~AV$_{2}$. This may be the largest member of a new population of small bodies with the aphelion smaller than 0.718~au, called Vatiras. The surface of 2020~AV$_{2}$ is being constantly modified by the high temperature, by the strong solar wind irradiation that characterizes the innermost region of the Solar system, and by high-energy micrometeorite impacts. The study of its physical properties represents an extreme test-case for the science of near-Earth asteroids. Here, we report spectroscopic observations of 2020~AV$_{2}$ in …
The dynamically hazardous asteroid 2025 TV$_{10}$. A new co-orbital asteroid of Venus
São Paulo State University (UNESP)（圣保罗州立大学）；Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia（跨机构电子天文学实验室）；LIRA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS（LIRA，巴黎天文台，巴黎文理研究大学，索邦大学，巴黎西岱大学，CY塞尔吉巴黎大学，法国国家科学研究中心）
We carried out low-resolution optical spectroscopy of 51 main-belt asteroids, most of which have highly-inclined orbits. They are selected from D-type candidates in the SDSS-MOC 4 catalog. Using the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics 2 m telescope in India, we determined the spectral types of 38 asteroids. Among them, eight asteroids were classified as D-type asteroids. Fractions of D-type asteroids are 3.0+/-1.1 for low orbital inclination main-belt asteroids and 7.3+/-2.0 for high orbital inclination main-belt asteroids. The re…
A stable population of objects co-orbiting with Venus was recently hypothesized in order to explain the existence of Venus's co-orbital dust ring. We conducted a 5 day twilight survey for these objects with the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) 4 meter telescope covering about 35 unique square degrees to 21 mag in the $r$-band. Our survey provides the most stringent limit so far on the number of Venus co-orbital asteroids; it was capable of detecting $5\%$ of the entire population of those asteroids brighter than 21 magnitude. We estimate an upper limit on the number of co-orbital…
The asteroid belt is characterized by an extreme low total mass of material on dynamically excited orbits. The Nice Model explains many peculiar qualities of the solar system, including the belt's excited state, by invoking an orbital instability between the outer planets. However, previous studies of the Nice Model's effect on the belt's structure struggle to reproduce the innermost asteroids' orbital inclination distribution. Here, we show how the final phase of giant planet migration sculpts the asteroid belt, in particular its inclination distribution. As interactions with leftover planete…
Asteroid (514107) 2015 BZ509 was discovered recently in Jupiter's co-orbital region with a retrograde motion around the Sun. The known chaotic dynamics of the outer Solar System have so far precluded the identification of its origin. Here, we perform a high-resolution statistical search for stable orbits and show that asteroid (514107) 2015 BZ509 has been in its current orbital state since the formation of the Solar System. This result indicates that (514107) 2015 BZ509 was captured from the interstellar medium 4.5 billion years in the past as planet formation models cannot produce such a prim…
The knowledge of the orbit or the ephemeris uncertainty of asteroid presents a particular interest for various purposes. These quantities are for instance useful for recovering asteroids, for identifying lost asteroids or for planning stellar occultation campaigns. They are also needed to estimate the close approach of Near-Earth asteroids, and subsequent risk of collision. Ephemeris accuracy can also be used for instrument calibration purposes or for scientific applications. Asteroid databases provide information about the uncertainty of the orbits allowing the measure of the quality of an or…
Earth co-orbitals of the horseshoe type are interesting objects to study for practical reasons. They are relatively easy to access from our planet and that makes them attractive targets for sample return missions. Here, we show that near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 2015 SO2 is a transient co-orbital to the Earth that experiences a rather peculiar orbital evolution characterised by recurrent, alternating horseshoe and quasi-satellite episodes. It is currently following a horseshoe trajectory, the ninth asteroid known to do so. Besides moving inside the 1:1 mean motion resonance with the Earth, it is s…
A determination of the dynamical evolution of the asteroid belt is difficult because the asteroid belt has evolved since the time of asteroid formation through mechanisms that include: (1) catastrophic collisions, (2) rotational disruption, (3) chaotic orbital evolution and (4) orbital evolution driven by Yarkovsky radiation forces. The timescales of these loss mechanisms are uncertain and there is a need for more observational constraints. In the inner main belt, the mean size of the non-family asteroids increases with increasing inclination. Here, we use that observation to show that all inn…
We are conducting a survey using twilight time on the Dark Energy Camera with the Blanco 4m telescope in Chile to look for objects interior to Earth's and Venus' orbits. To date we have discovered two rare Atira/Apohele asteroids, 2021 LJ4 and 2021 PH27, which have orbits completely interior to Earth's orbit. We also discovered one new Apollo type Near Earth Object (NEO) that crosses Earth's orbit, 2022 AP7. Two of the discoveries likely have diameters greater than 1 km. 2022 AP7 is likely the largest Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) discovered in about eight years. To date we have covered…
Fifteen orbital clusters (associations) were identified among ~20000 near Earth asteroids (NEAs). All associations were found with a high statistical reliability using a single linkage cluster analysis algorithm and three orbital similarity functions. The identified groups constitute a small fraction (4.74 %) of the entire sample. Nonetheless they may be hazardous to the Earth and its inhabitants. As it happens with meteoroid streams, every year the Earth comes very close to the orbits of each association. In two cases (2008TC3 and 2017FU102) the distance between the asteroid's and the Earth's…
In a previous paper we simulated the orbital evolution of dust particles from the Jupiter Trojan asteroids ejected by the impacts of interplanetary particles, and evaluated their overall configuration in the form of dust arcs. Here we compare the orbital properties of these Trojan dust particles and the Trojan asteroids. Both Trojan asteroids and most of the dust particles are trapped in the Jupiter 1:1 resonance. However, for dust particles, this resonance is modified because of the presence of solar radiation pressure, which reduces the peak value of the semi-major axis distribution. We find…
Photometry from the Helios and STEREO spacecraft revealed regions of enhanced sky surface-brightness suggesting a narrow circumsolar ring of dust associated with Venus's orbit. We model this phenomenon by integrating the orbits of 10,000,000+ dust particles subject to gravitational and non-gravitational forces, considering several different kinds of plausible dust sources. We find that only particles from a hypothetical population of Venus co-orbital asteroids can produce enough signal in a narrow ring to match the observations. Previous works had suggested such objects would be dynamically un…
To evaluate the feasibility of measuring differences in bulk composition among carbonaceous meteorite parent bodies from an asteroid or comet orbiter, we present the results of a performance simulation of an orbital gamma-ray spectroscopy ("GRS") experiment in a Dawn-like orbit around spherical model asteroids with a range of carbonaceous compositions. The orbital altitude was held equal to the asteroid radius for 4.5 months. Both the asteroid gamma-ray spectrum and the spacecraft background flux were calculated using the MCNPX Monte-Carlo code. GRS is sensitive to depths below the optical sur…
We seek evidence of the Yarkovsky effect among Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) by measuring the Yarkovsky-related orbital drift from the orbital fit. To prevent the occurrence of unreliable detections we employ a high precision dynamical model, including the Newtonian attraction of 16 massive asteroids and the planetary relativistic terms, and a suitable astrometric data treatment. We find 21 NEAs whose orbital fits show a measurable orbital drift with a signal to noise ratio (SNR) greater than 3. The best determination is for asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36, resulting in the recovery of one radar app…
We investigate the orbital stability close to the unique L4-point Jupiter binary Trojan asteroid 624 Hektor. The gravitational potential of 624 Hektor is calculated using the polyhedron model with observational data of 2038 faces and 1021 vertexes. Previous studies have presented three different density values for 624 Hektor. The equilibrium points in the gravitational potential of 624 Hektor with different density values have been studied in detail. There are five equilibrium points in the gravitational potential of 624 Hektor no matter the density value. The positions, Jacobian, eigenvalues,…
This study investigates the different novel forms of the dynamical equations of a particle orbiting a rotating asteroid and the effective potential, the Jacobi integral, etc. on different manifolds. Nine new forms of the dynamical equations of a particle orbiting a rotating asteroid are presented, and the classical form of the dynamical equations has also been found. The dynamical equations with the potential and the effective potential in scalar form in the arbitrary body-fixed frame and the special body-fixed frame are presented and discussed. Moreover, the simplified forms of the effective …
We present our investigations of the physical and dynamical properties of selected Earth co-orbital asteroids. The photometric optical light curves as well as rotation periods and pole solutions for a sample of four Earth co-orbital asteroids, namely (138175) 2000 EE104 (P=13.9476+/-0.0051 hrs), (418849) 2008 WM64 (P=2.4077+/-0.0001 hrs), 2016 CA138 (P=5.3137+/-0.0016 hrs) and 2017 SL16 (P=0.3188+/-0.0053 hrs), are determined or improved and presented in this work. For this investigation, we combine observations carried out at the Bulgarian National Astronomical Observatory - Rozhen using the …
It is widely accepted that a quasi-steady-state flux of minor bodies moving in and out of the co-orbital state with the Earth may exist. Some of these objects are very good candidates for future in situ study due to their favourable dynamical properties. In this paper, we show that the recently discovered near-Earth asteroids 2015 XX169, 2015 YA and 2015 YQ1 are small transient Earth co-orbitals. These new findings increase the tally of known Earth co-orbitals to 17. The three of them currently exhibit asymmetric horseshoe behaviour subjected to a Kozai resonance and their short-term orbital e…
A co-orbital asteroid shares the orbit of a secondary body about its primary. Though more commonly encountered as an asteroid that shares a planet's orbit around the Sun, a co-orbital asteroid could similarly share the orbit of the Moon around the Earth. Though such asteroids would be close to Earth and so relatively bright, their rapid on-sky motion is such that they might escape detection by near-Earth asteroid surveys. The discovery of such lunar co-orbital asteroids (which we will refer to generically here as Lunar Trojans or LTs) would advance our understanding of inner Solar System orbit…
The observed near-Earth asteroid population contains very few objects with small perihelion distances, say, q<=0.2 au. NEAs that currently have orbits with larger q might be hiding a past evolution during which they have approached closer to the Sun. We present a probabilistic assessment of the minimum q that an asteroid has reached during its orbital history. At the same time, we offer an estimate of the dwell time, that is, the time q has been in a specific range. We have re-analyzed orbital integrations of test asteroids from the moment they enter the near-Earth region until they either col…
Containing only a few percent the mass of the moon, the current asteroid belt is around three to four orders of magnitude smaller that its primordial mass inferred from disk models. Yet dynamical studies have shown that the asteroid belt could not have been depleted by more than about an order of magnitude over the past ~4 Gyr. The remainder of the mass loss must have taken place during an earlier phase of the solar system's evolution. An orbital instability in the outer solar system occurring during the process of terrestrial planet formation can reproduce the broad characteristics of the inn…
The Asteroid Belt is characterized by the radial mixing of bodies with different physical properties, a very low mass compared to Minimum Mass Solar Nebula expectations and has an excited orbital distribution. Models of the evolution of the Asteroid Belt show that the origin of its structure is strongly linked to the process of terrestrial planet formation. The Grand Tack model presents a possible solution to the conundrum of reconciling the small mass of Mars with the properties of the Asteroid Belt, including the mass depletion, radial mixing and orbital excitation. However, while the inclin…
We report on the discovery of new Martian Trojans within the Minor Planet Center list of asteroids. Their orbital evolution over 10^8 yr shows characteristic signatures of dynamical longevity (Scholl et al, 2005) while their average orbits resemble that of the largest known Martian Trojan, 5261 Eureka. The group forms a cluster within the region where the most stable Trojans should reside. Based on a combinatorial analysis and a comparison with the Jovian Trojan population, we argue that both this feature and the apparent paucity of km-sized Martian Trojans (Trilling et al, 2006) as compared t…
The long-standing co-orbital asteroids have been thought to be the possible source of zodiacal dust ring around the orbit of Venus, but inconsistent conclusions on the orbital stability thus existence of Venus Trojans are found in literature. We present in this paper a systematic survey of the orbital stability of Venus Trojans, taking into account the dynamical influences from the general relativity and the Yarkovsky effect. The orbits of thousands of fictitious Venus Trojans are numerically simulated. Using the method of frequency analysis, their orbital stabilities and the dynamical mechani…
In this paper we present the orbital elements of Linus satellite of 22 Kalliope asteroid. Orbital element determination is based on the speckle interferometry data obtained with the 6-meter BTA telescope operated by SAO RAS. We processed 9 accurate positions of Linus orbiting around the main component of 22 Kalliope between 10 and 16 December, 2011. In order to determine the orbital elements of the Linus we have applied the direct geometric method. The formal errors are about 5 mas. This accuracy makes it possible to study the variations of the Linus orbital elements influenced by different pe…
We perform statistical wavelet analysis of the Main Belt asteroids, seeking statistically significant asteroid families. The goal is to test the new wavelet analysis algorithm and to compare its results with more traditional methods like the hierarchic clustering. We first consider several 1D distributions for various physical and orbital parameters of asteroids. Then we consider three bivariate distributions for the three orbital parameters (a,e,i) taken pairwisely. The full 3D analysis of this space is not available here, but based on the 2D results we perform a disentangling of overlapped 2…
The orbital evolution of particles released from the surface of a rubble-pile body by Earth's tides during flyby within the Roche limit is studied. Test particles initially placed on the surface leave the surface and escape the parent body. Released particles remain in a relative small cloud for about 500 years and spread evenly along the orbit of the parent asteroid during next several hundred years. Their orbital elements exhibit very small dispersion in the mentioned time frame.
Minor bodies trapped in 1:1 co-orbital resonances with a host planet could be relevant to explain the origin of captured satellites. Among the giant planets, Uranus has one of the smallest known populations of co-orbitals, three objects, and all of them are short-lived. Asteroid 2015 DB216 has an orbital period that matches well that of Uranus, and here we investigate its dynamical state. Direct N-body calculations are used to assess the current status of this object, reconstruct its immediate dynamical past, and explore its future orbital evolution. A covariance matrix-based Monte Carlo schem…
Asteroid 1934 CT;1989 AC, well known as 4179 Toutatis, is an Apollo and Mars-crosser asteroid with a chaotic orbit produced by a 3:1 resonance with Jupiter and a 1:4 resonance with the Earth, and frequent close approaches to the Earth. It is listed as a potential hazardous object (PHA). The aim of this study is to investigate the possibility of 4179 Toutatis to be ejected from the Solar System. This paper presents an orbital evolution of 4179 Toutatis in time interval of ~300 kyr. Investigation of its orbital evolution is conducted by using the Mercury subroutine package, where the gravitation…
Using our photometric observations taken between 1996 and 2013 and other published data, we derived properties of the binary near-Earth asteroid (175706) 1996 FG3 including new measurements constraining evolution of the mutual orbit with potential consequences for the entire binary asteroid population. We also refined previously determined values of parameters of both components, making 1996 FG3 one of the most well understood binary asteroid systems. We determined the orbital vector with a substantially greater accuracy than before and we also placed constraints on a stability of the orbit. S…
We use the current orbital structure of large (>50km) asteroids in the main asteroid belt to constrain the evolution of the giant planets when they migrated from their primordial orbits to their current ones. Minton & Malhotra (2009) showed that the orbital distribution of large asteroids in the main belt can be reproduced by an exponentially-decaying migration of the giant planets on a time scale of tau ~ 0.5My. However, self-consistent numerical simulations show that the planetesimal-driven migration of the giant planets is inconsistent with an exponential change in their semi major axes on …
Gaia is an astrometric mission that will be launched in spring 2013. There are many scientific outcomes from this mission and as far as our Solar System is concerned, the satellite will be able to map thousands of main belt asteroids (MBAs) and near-Earth objects (NEOs) down to magnitude < 20. The high precision astrometry (0.3-5 mas of accuracy) will allow orbital improvement, mass determination, and a better accuracy in the prediction and ephemerides of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). We give in this paper some simulation tests to analyse the impact of Gaia data on known asteroids' o…
A method for classifying orbits near asteroids under a polyhedral gravitational field is presented, and may serve as a valuable reference for spacecraft orbit design for asteroid exploration. The orbital dynamics near asteroids are very complex. According to the variation in orbit characteristics after being affected by gravitational perturbation during the periapsis passage, orbits near an asteroid can be classified into 9 categories: (1) surroundingto-surrounding, (2) surrounding-to-surface, (3) surroundingto-infinity, (4) infinity-to-infinity, (5) infinity-to-surface, (6) infinity-to-surrou…
We investigate the long-term dynamical survival of Earth co-orbital asteroids, focusing on near-circular, near-planar orbits which existing studies suggest are the most stable. Through numerical integration of test particles we show that about a quarter of an initial population can survive for at least 50\% of the age of the solar system with horseshoe particles being four to five times more likely to survive than L4/L5 Trojans. From the end state statistics we constrain the existence of planetesimal-sized objects originally in co-orbital libration, finding that typically $5^{-2}_{+7}$ such pl…
We demonstrate dynamical pathways from main-belt asteroid and Centaur orbits to those in co-orbital motion with Jupiter, including the retrograde (inclination $i>90^o$) state. We estimate that at any given time, there should be $\sim1$ kilometer-scale or larger escaped asteroid in a transient direct (prograde) orbit with semimajor axis near that of Jupiter's ($a\simeq a_J$), with proportionally more smaller objects as determined by their size distribution. Most of these objects would be in the horseshoe dynamical state, which are hard to detect due to their moderate eccentricities (spending mo…
Apart from Mercury that has no known co-orbital companions, Venus remains as the inner planet that hosts the smallest number of known co-orbitals (two): (322756) 2001 CK32 and 2002 VE68. Both objects have absolute magnitudes 18 < H < 21 and were identified as Venus co-orbitals in 2004. Here, we analyse the orbit of the recently discovered asteroid 2012 XE133 with H = 23.5 mag to conclude that it is a new Venus co-orbital currently following a transitional trajectory between Venus' Lagrangian points L5 and L3. The object could have been a 1:1 librator for several thousand years and it may leave…
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully performed the first test of a kinetic impactor for asteroid deflection by impacting Dimorphos, the secondary of near-Earth binary asteroid (65803) Didymos, and changing the orbital period of Dimorphos. A change in orbital period of approximately 7 minutes was expected if the incident momentum from the DART spacecraft was directly transferred to the asteroid target in a perfectly inelastic collision, but studies of the probable impact conditions and asteroid properties indicated that a considerable momentum enhancement ($β$) wa…
Near-Earth Asteroids can be hazardous to the Earth, due to their orbital characteristics and proximity to inner Solar System planets. Using three sets of CCD images collected in June and July 2011, the orbital elements of asteroid 1994 PC1 were determined at solar opposition. The body's specific right ascension and declination were calculated through least squares plate reduction (taking parallax into account) and compared to those of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These data were then used to find 1994 PC1's orbital elements, as well as any statistical uncertainty. This research points to an …
A number of Earth co-orbital asteroids experience repeated transitions between the quasi-satellite and horseshoe dynamical states. Asteroids 2001 GO2, 2002 AA29, 2003 YN107 and 2015 SO2 are well-documented cases of such a dynamical behaviour. These transitions depend on the gravitational influence of other planets, owing to the overlapping of a multiplicity of secular resonances. Here, we show that the recently discovered asteroid (469219) 2016 HO3 is a quasi-satellite of our planet -the fifth one, joining the ranks of (164207) 2004 GU9, (277810) 2006 FV35, 2013 LX28 and 2014 OL339. This new E…
Most co-orbital objects in the Solar system are thought to follow tadpole-type orbits, behaving as Trojans. However, most of Earth's identified co-orbitals are moving along horseshoe-type orbits. The current tally of minor bodies considered to be Earth co-orbitals amounts to 18; of them, 12 are horseshoes, five are quasi-satellites, and one is a Trojan. The semimajor axis values of all these bodies librate between $0.983$ au and $1.017$ au. In this work, we have studied the dynamical behaviour of objects following orbits with semimajor axis within this range that may be in a 1:1 mean-motion re…
Asteroid families form as a result of large-scale collisions among main belt asteroids. The orbital distribution of fragments after a family-forming impact could inform us about their ejection velocities. Unfortunately, however, orbits dynamically evolve by a number of effects, including the Yarkovsky drift, chaotic diffusion, and gravitational encounters with massive asteroids, such that it is difficult to infer the ejection velocities eons after each family's formation. Here we analyze the inclination distribution of asteroid families, because proper inclination can remain constant over long…
We have made an extensive search for grouping amongst the near Earth asteroids (NEAs). We used two D- functions and rigorous cluster analysis approach. We have found sev- eral new groups (associations) among the NEAs: the objects moving on similar orbits with small minimum orbital intersection distances (MOID) with the Earth trajectory. Reliability of some of these groups is quite high.
Searching for the non-Trojan Jupiter co-orbitals we have numerically integrated orbits of 3\,160 asteroids and 24 comets discovered by October 2010 and situated within and close to the planet co-orbital region. Using this sample we have been able to select eight asteroids and three comets and have analyzed their orbital behavior in a great detail. Among them we have identified five new Jupiter co-orbitals: \cu, \sa, \ql, \gh, and \Larsen, as well as we have analyzed six previously identified co-orbitals: \hr, \ug, \qq, \aee, \wc\ and \ar. \cu\ is currently on a quasi-satellite orbit with repea…
On 2013 February 15 a small asteroid rammed against the atmosphere above the region of Chelyabinsk in Russia, producing the most powerful superbolide since the Tunguska event in 1908. Lacking proper astrometric observations, the pre-impact orbit of this object has been determined using videos, satellite images, and pure geometry. Unfortunately, more than two years after the event, the published estimates vary so much that there is no clear orbital solution that could be used to investigate the origin of the impactor and the existence of dynamically, or perhaps even genetically, related asteroi…
Shepherding Miorita and its flock: A group of near-Earth asteroids driven by apsidal and von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai secular resonances. A source of low-perihelion asteroids
Venus has three known co-orbitals: (322756) 2001 CK32, 2002 VE68 and 2012 XE133. The first two have absolute magnitudes 18 < H < 21. The third one, significantly smaller at H = 23.4 mag, is a recent discovery that signals the probable presence of many other similar objects: small transient companions to Venus that are also potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). Here, we study the dynamical evolution of the recently discovered asteroid 2013 ND15. At H = 24.1 mag, this minor body is yet another small Venus co-orbital and PHA, currently close to the Lagrangian point L4 and following the most ecc…
The distribution of heavy elements is anomalously low in the asteroid main belt region compared with elsewhere in the solar system. Observational surveys also indicate a deficit in the number of small ($ \le 50$~km size) asteroids that is two orders of magnitude lower than what is expected from the single power-law distribution that results from a collisional coagulation and fragmentation equilibrium. Here, we consider the possibility that a major fraction of the original asteroid population may have been cleared out by Jupiter's secular resonance, as it swept through the main asteroid belt du…
The Euphrosyne asteroid family is uniquely situated at high inclination in the outer Main Belt, bisected by the nu_6 secular resonance. This large, low albedo family may thus be an important contributor to specific subpopulations of the near-Earth objects. We present simulations of the orbital evolution of Euphrosyne family members from the time of breakup to the present day, focusing on those members that move into near-Earth orbits. We find that family members typically evolve into a specific region of orbital element-space, with semimajor axes near ~3 AU, high inclinations, very large eccen…
The orbital evolution of the two meteorites Příbram and Neuschwanstein on almost identical orbits and also several thousand clones were studied in the framework of the N-body problem for 5000 years into the past. The meteorites moved on very similar orbits during the whole investigated interval. We have also searched for photographic meteors and asteroids moving on similar orbits. There were 5 meteors found in the IAU MDC database and 6 NEAs with currently similar orbits to Příbram and Neuschwanstein. However, only one meteor 161E1 and one asteroid 2002 QG46 had a similar orbital evolution ove…
