Glossary term: Asteroid Family
Description: A family of asteroids is a group of asteroids with the similar orbital elements: semi-major axis (the typical distance from the Sun), eccentricity (a parameter relating to the shape of the orbit), and orbital inclination. Members of an asteroid family may also share similar compositions, i.e. the amount of rocky material, different metals, or water they contain. It is thought that the members of these groups may be the remains of past collisions between larger asteroids.
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Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".
