What is amor asteroid?

Amor asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids that have orbits that cross the orbit of Mars but do not intersect with Earth's orbit. They were named after the asteroid 1221 Amor, which was discovered in 1932. As of 2021, over 18,000 Amor asteroids have been identified.

Amor asteroids are considered potentially hazardous objects because their orbits have the potential to intersect with Earth's orbit in the future. However, none of the known Amor asteroids are predicted to impact Earth in the next few hundred years.

The largest known Amor asteroid is 1036 Ganymed, which has a diameter of approximately 41 kilometers. Ganymed is also one of the brightest asteroids in the solar system and is thought to be composed primarily of metallic iron-nickel.

Scientists study Amor asteroids to better understand the history and evolution of the solar system and to assess the potential threat posed by these objects to Earth.