This page answers questions about asteroids. The questions are:
I have information about the orbits of 79,084 asteroids. Some aspects
are displayed in the following table. a is the length
of the semimajor axis, in AU. e is the eccentricity.
i is the inclination of the orbit, in degrees.
q is the least distance from the Sun, in AU.
Q is the greatest distance from the Sun, in AU.
vmin is the least orbital speed, in km/s.
vmax is the greatest orbital speed, in km/s. <
indicates the least value, μ the mean value, >
the greatest value, and σ is a measure for the
spread of the values (that for normally distributed data coincides
with the standard deviation but is less sensitive to outliers than the
standard deviation). For example, the fastest asteroid I know (Aten)
goes 109.52 km/s when that asteroid is closest to the Sun.
< | μ | > | σ | |
a | 0.642 | 2.704 | 120.88 | 0.384 |
e | 0.001 | 0.136 | 0.956 | 0.068 |
i | 0.025 | 7.742 | 160.39 | 5.443 |
q | 0.140 | 2.333 | 42.79 | 0.440 |
Q | 1.019 | 3.074 | 213.20 | 0.404 |
vmin | 0.60 | 16.06 | 25.20 | 1.28 |
vmax | 4.58 | 21.21 | 109.52 | 2.39 |
http://aa.quae.nl/en/antwoorden/asteroiden.html;
Last updated: 2012-01-13