Amor asteroid

asteroid that has an orbital semi-major axis greater than 1 AU (a > 1.0 AU) and a perihelion greater than Earth's aphelion distance (q > 1.017 AU), but is also a near-Earth object (q < 1.3 AU)

An amor asteroid is a group of asteroids found near Earth that were named after 1221 Amor. While some other kinds of asteroids cross over Mars' and Earth's orbits, nearly all of the amor asteroids do not. The best known amor asteroid is 433 Eros. It circled around and landed upon by the NEAR Shoemaker. About 1,200 of all the asteroids in space are amor asteroids, with about 200 of them numbered, or given a number. Only 50 amor asteroids are named.

Some notable amor asteroids change

The following are a few of the most notable amor asteroids, in reverse order of discovery:

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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