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Old December 23rd 18, 04:13 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Quadibloc
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Default what (if anything) "defines" an orbit as being "cometary" vs "asteroidal"?

On Saturday, December 22, 2018 at 2:22:36 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Is there some combination of orbital element values that establishes the orbit
of a minor solar system body as being "cometary" as opposed to "asteroidal"?
Something akin to "eccentricity 0.6, inclination 30d (or retrograde)"? I
understand that highly-inclined, highly-eccentric orbits are more likely to be
those of a comet than are those orbits with low such values, but are these
parameters actually "defined"? (My question is about the orbit itself, not the
body - I understand that comets can have "asteroidal orbits" (e.g. 29P) and that
asteroids can have "cometary orbits" (e.g. 2006 EX52))


Yes, there is, and I believe cometary orbits are ones with such a high
eccentricity that it's hard to tell that they're not parabolic. I can't find the
definition online, I suspect it's something like an eccentricity 0.9 .

John Savard