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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Cometary and Asteroid Missions _ Asteroid 4179 Toutatis ?

Posted by: PhilCo126 Apr 4 2006, 01:45 PM

Asteroid categories:
ATEN asteroids have orbits that lie inside the Earth's orbit...
AMOR asteroids have orbits that cross the orbit of Mars and approach the Earth's orbit...

I remember that asteroid Toutatis came close to Earth in December 1992, but did that particular pass make it an APOLLO asteroid (crossing Earth orbit)?
Don't know which pass this helio-centric view shows ( Toutatis comes close every 4 years ):
http://www.astrosurf.com/maury/asteroides/04179.gif

To be complete; ARJUNA asteroids orbit the Sun in a nearly circular path... existence confirmed ?

Posted by: PhilCo126 May 4 2006, 08:02 AM

Nice link with asteroid scale models ( last column ):

http://analyzer.depaul.edu/see_project/orbits/default.htm