Damocloid asteroid
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Categories: Damocloid asteroids
Damocloids are asteroids such as 5335 Damocles and 1996 PW that have long-period highly eccentric orbits typical of periodic comets such as Comet Halley, but without showing a cometary coma or tail.
As of late 2005, twenty-five Damocloids were known. Their average radius is 8 kilometers. The albedos of four Damocloids have been measured, and they are among the darkest objects known in the Solar system. Damocloids are reddish in color, but not as red as many Kuiper belt objects or Centaurs. They are believed to be nuclei of Halley-type comets that have lost all their volatile materials due to outgassing. Such comets are believed to originate from the Oort cloud.
The object 2001 OG108 was thought to be a Damocloid, but as it approached perihelion it began to display cometary activity and was thus renamed Comet C/2001 OG108 (LONEOS).
External link
- David Jewitt, The Damocloids
- David Jewitt, A first look at the Damocloids
| The minor planetsedit |
| Vulcanoids | Main belt | Groups and families | Near-Earth objects | Jupiter Trojans |
| Centaurs | Damocloids | Comets | Trans-Neptunians (Kuiper belt | Scattered disc | Oort cloud) |
| For other objects and regions, see: Binary asteroids, Asteroid moons and the Solar system For a complete listing, see: List of asteroids. For pronunciation, see: Pronunciation of asteroid names. |