Flora Family - Location and Size

Location and Size

A HCM numerical analysis (Zappala 1995) determined a large group of 'core' family members, whose proper orbital elements lie in the approximate ranges

ap ep ip
min 2.17 AU 0.109 2.4°
max 2.33 AU 0.168 6.9°

The boundaries of the family are, however, very indistinct. At the present epoch, the range of osculating orbital elements of these core members is

a e i
min 2.17 AU 0.053 1.6°
max 2.33 AU 0.224 7.7°

Zappala's 1995 analysis found 604 core members, and 1027 in a wider group. A search of a recent proper element database (AstDys)for 96944 minor planets in 2005 yielded 7438 objects lying within the rectangular-shaped region defined by the first table above. However, this also includes parts of the Vesta and Nysa families in the corners so that a more likely membership estimate is 4000-5000 objects (by eye). This means that the Flora family represents 4-5% of all main belt asteroids.

Read more about this topic:  Flora Family

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