Asteroid Zoo Talk

Path of asteroids

  • meegja by meegja

    Almost all asteroids I mark are having a left to right movement. This one (lower left corner) has a downwards path.

    Is there anything special with that? Or is it just a "drifter"?

    Posted

  • Dr.Asteroid by Dr.Asteroid scientist, admin

    Up and down motion is a sign of the asteroid being closer to the Earth. Since the asteroids are typically on slightly inclined orbits (tilted relative to the Earth) there's usually some up and down motion.

    When an asteroid is close to the Earth, the amount of motion on the sky can become large.

    Now, to add confusion, there is a group of asteroid in the main belt called the Hungarias. They are at high inclination and even though they're far away from the Earth, they display a lot of motion North/South (or up and down in these images). We'll see what happens on this target.

    Posted

  • meegja by meegja in response to Dr.Asteroid's comment.

    Thanx for the insight! 😃

    Posted

  • meegja by meegja

    http://talk.asteroidzoo.org/#/subjects/AAZ00009r9 ... this one is moving right to left which is also not common 😃

    Posted