Damocloids are asteroids such as 5335 Damocles and 1996 PW that have Halley family or long-period highly eccentric orbits typical of periodic comets such as Comet Halley, but without showing a cometary coma or tail. 253 Mathilde, a C-type asteroid. ... 5335 Damocles is the archetype of the Damocloids, astroids that are inactive nuclei of Halley Family and long period comets. ... In astrodynamics, under standard assumptions any orbit must be of conic section shape. ... Comet Hale-Bopp Comet West For other uses, see Comet (disambiguation). ... Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, more generally known as Halleys Comet after Edmond Halley, is a comet that can be seen every 75-76 years. ... The comet Ikeya-Zhang exhibiting a bright, condensed coma (march 2002) In astronomy, the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet is called its coma (from the Latin word for hair). It is formed when the comet passes close to the sun on its highly elliptical orbit; as the...

Damocloids are believed to be nuclei of Halley-type comets that have lost all their volatile materials due to outgassing. Such comets are believed to originate from the Oort cloud. This hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that a number of objects thought to be Damocloids (and assigned minor planet provisional designations) subsequently showed a coma and were confirmed to be comets: C/2001 OG₁₀₈ (LONEOS), C/2002 CE₁₀ (LINEAR), C/2002 VQ₉₄ (LINEAR), C/2004 HV₆₀ (Spacewatch) and possibly others. Another strong indication of cometary origin is the fact that some Damocloids have retrograde orbits, unlike any other asteroids. Outgassing (sometimes called Offgassing, particularly when in reference to indoor air quality) is the slow release of a gas that was trapped, frozen, absorbed or adsorbed in some material. ... This image is an artists rendering of the Oort cloud and the Kuiper Belt. ... The provisional designation of comets and asteroids are similar to each other: they both follow a pattern set in 1925 by the Minor Planet Center of the IAU. Historical designations At first, astronomers strove to assign symbols to the minor planets: 1 Ceres a stylized sickle 2 Pallas a lozenge... The comet Ikeya-Zhang exhibiting a bright, condensed coma (march 2002) In astronomy, the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet is called its coma (from the Latin word for hair). It is formed when the comet passes close to the sun on its highly elliptical orbit; as the... The following is a collection of lists of noteworthy asteroids in the Solar system, sometimes also including minor planets beyond the orbit of Jupiter. ... Prograde motion is the motion of a planetary body in a direction similar to that of other bodies within its system, and is sometimes called direct motion, especially in astrology. ...

As of July 2007, 36 Damocloids were known. Their average radius is eight kilometers. The albedos of four Damocloids have been measured, and they are among the darkest objects known in the Solar system. Damocloids are reddish in color, but not as red as many Kuiper belt objects or Centaurs. Albedo is the ratio of reflected to incident electromagnetic radiation. ... The Kuiper belt, derived from data from the Minor Planet Center. ... The centaurs are a class of icy planetoids that orbit the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune, named after the mythical race of centaurs. ...

External links

• List of Damocloids

• David Jewitt, The Damocloids

• David Jewitt, A first look at the Damocloids