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Amor asteroid
The Amor asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the asteroid 1221 Amor. They have orbital semi-major axes between those of Earth and Mars. Amors often cross the orbit of Mars (if the orbit is eccentric enough), but they do not cross the orbit of Earth (those that do are classed as Apollo asteroids). The two moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, may be Amor asteroids that were somehow captured by the Red Planet.
The largest member of this group is 433 Eros, which was the first asteroid to be orbited and then landed upon by a human probe (NEAR Shoemaker).
Well-known Amor asteroids include:
Name | Year | Discoverer |
---|---|---|
3908 Nyx | 1980 | Hans-Emil Schuster |
1221 Amor | 1932 | Eugène Joseph Delporte |
1036 Ganymed | 1924 | Walter Baade |
887 Alinda | 1918 | Max Wolf |
719 Albert | 1911 | Johann Palisa |
433 Eros | 1898 | Gustav Witt |
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(For other objects and regions, see: Binary asteroids, Asteroid moons and the Solar system) |
(For a complete listing, see: List of asteroids) |
Last updated: 10-24-2004 05:10:45