Tracking an oddball group of near-Earth asteroids
EarthSky
A new NASA study has traced some mysterious members of the near-Earth asteroid population back to their likely source – the Euphrosyne family of dark asteroids in the outer asteroid belt.
There are over 700,000 asteroidal bodies currently known in the main belt between planets Mars and Jupiter, ranging in size from large boulders to about 60 percent of the diameter of Earth’s moon, with many yet to be discovered. This makes finding the specific point of origin of most of near-Earth asteroids extremely difficult.
Distributed at the outer edge of the asteroid belt, the Euphrosynes (pronounced you-FROH-seh-nees) have an unusual orbital path that juts well above the ecliptic, the equator of the solar system. The asteroid after which they are named, Euphrosyne – for an ancient Greek goddess of mirth – is about 156 miles (260 kilometers) across and is one of the 10 largest asteroids in the main belt. Current-day Euphrosyne is thought to be a remnant of a massive collision about 700 million years ago that formed the family of smaller asteroids bearing its name. Scientists think this event was one of the last great collisions in the solar system.
The new study, conducted by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, used the agency’s orbiting Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) telescope to look at these unusual asteroids to learn more about Near Earth Objects, or NEOs, and their potential threat to Earth.
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