34351 Decatur, provisional designation ', is a Koronis asteroid from the outer region of the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...
, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 3 September 2000, by American amateur astronomer Loren Ball at his Emerald Lane Observatory in Alabama, United States. The
Q-type asteroid
Q-type asteroids are relatively uncommon inner-belt asteroids with a strong, broad 1 micrometre olivine and pyroxene feature, and a spectral slope that indicates the presence of metal. There are absorption features shortwards and longwards of 0. ...
was named after the city of Decatur, location of the discovering observatory.
Orbit and classification
''Decatur'' is a member of the
Koronis family ]
The Koronis or Koronian family (), also known as the Lacrimosa family, is a very large asteroid family of S-type asteroid, stony asteroids, located in the Kirkwood gap, outer region of the asteroid belt. They are thought to have been formed at le ...
(), a very large outer
asteroid family
An asteroid family is a population of asteroids that share similar proper orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. The members of the families are thought to be fragments of past asteroid collisions. An a ...
with nearly co-planar ecliptical orbits. It orbits the Sun in the