A Study of Asteroid Families and Streams by Computer Techniques

Abstract

A study of asteroid orbits is made to determine if there exist groupings of similar orbits in the asteroid population. A computer program based on Southworth's D criterion for similarity in meteor orbits is used. The program successfully sorted out the asteroid families listed by Hirayama, Brouwer, and van Houten et al. A number of new families were detected, several of which appear to be more significant than the minor Brouwer families. Asteroidal streams (jetstreams) are studied and a list of such streams is presented.