Asteroids are broadly classified according to two criteria; one is their orbit (dynamical classification), the other is their surface composition (spectral classification). Today we’ll take a look at the dynamical classification system.
Asteroids can be found just about everywhere in the Solar System, which is why they are thought to be the leftovers from when the planets were formed. Unlike the planets, whose orbits are close to circular and all lie pretty much within the plane of the ecliptic (an imaginary plane that contains the orbit of the Earth around the Sun), asteroids tend to have more eccentric orbits (less … Continue reading...