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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 asteroid family is a more specific term than
asteroid group
whose members, while sharing some broad orbital characteristics, may be otherwise unrelated to each other.
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