What Are the Orbits of Planets and Asteroids?

What Tumbling Asteroids Tell Us About Their Innards

Asteroids are primordial pieces of our solar system’s history, but they aren’t exactly pristine relics. Their surfaces in particular are eroded by solar radiation and pockmarked with meteorite impacts. Detailed studies of asteroids’ interiors are also lacking, simply because very few probes have been able to study them up close. However, a promising new study uses data from the Gaia space observatory to understand the links between asteroid tumb…

Asteroid 471 Papagena at opposition

11 November 2025: Asteroid 471 Papagena makes closest approach to the Earth. – In-The-Sky.org.

What are the Orbits of Planets and Asteroids?

The Solar System is a place of constant, ordered motion. It's not a static collection of objects hanging in space; it's a dynamic and intricate machine governed by a single, dominant force: the gravity of the Sun. This gravitational pull dictates the path of every object, from the largest planet to the smallest speck of dust. The paths these objects follow are their orbits.