Glossary term: Asteroid Family
Description: A family of asteroids is a group of asteroids with the same orbital elements, such as semi-major axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. It is thought that the members of these groups may be the remains of past collisions between larger asteroids.
Related Terms:See this term in other languages
Term and definition status: This term and its definition is still awaiting approval
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".
