The Arjuna asteroids (also known as "Arjunas") are a dynamical group of asteroids in the

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

. Arjunas are

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...

s (NEOs) whose

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...

s are very

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

-like in character, having low

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...

s close to one year, and low

eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry * Eccentricity (g ...

. The group is named after Arjuna, a central hero in Hindu epic

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the s ...

. The definition is somewhat vague and overlaps the definition of the four well-established

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

, Amor,

Aten Aten also Aton, Atonu, or Itn ( egy, jtn, ''reconstructed'' ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The Aten was the disc of the sun and originally an aspect o ...

and Atira groups. They constitute a dynamically cold group of small NEOs that experience repeated trappings in the 1:1

mean-motion resonance In celestial mechanics, orbital resonance occurs when orbiting bodies exert regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually because their orbital periods are related by a ratio of small integers. Most commonly, this relationsh ...

with the Earth.

Members

Potential members of the Arjuna group with their

(APO) or

(ATE) group classification in parenthesis, include: * * * * *

References

Evidence for a near-Earth asteroid belt
Rabinowitz, David L.; Gehrels, Tom; Scotti, James V.; McMillan, Robert S.; Perry, Marcus L.; Wiśniewski, Wiesław Z.; Larson, Stephen M.; Howell, Ellen S.; & Mueller, Beatrice E. A. (1993), ''Nature'', Volume 363, no. 6431, pp. 704-706.
The Near-Earth Object Population
Gladman, Brett J.; Michel, Patrick; & Froeschlé, Claude (2000), ''Icarus'', Volume 146, Issue 1, pp. 176-189.
A resonant family of dynamically cold small bodies in the near-Earth asteroid belt
de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl (2013), ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters'', Volume 434, Issue 1, pp. L1-L5.
Geometric characterization of the Arjuna orbital domain
de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl (2015), ''Astronomische Nachrichten'', Volume 336, Issue 1, pp. 5–22. Earth co-orbital asteroids {{NE-asteroid-stub

Members

References

Further reading