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List of tumblers (small Solar System bodies)

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This is a list of tumblers, that is, small Solar System bodiess or moons that do not rotate in a fairly constant manner with a constant period. Instead of rotating around a constant axis or around an axis that itself moves evenly, they appear to tumble (see Poinsot's ellipsoid for an explanation).[1] For true tumbling, the three moments of inertia must be different. If two are equal, then the axis of rotation will simply precess in a circle. As of 2018, there are 3 natural satellites and 198 confirmed or likely tumblers out of a total of nearly 800,000 discovered small Solar System bodies. The data is sourced from the "Lightcurve Data Base" (LCDB).[2][3][a] The tumbling of a body can be caused by the torque from asymmetrically emitted radiation known as the YORP effect.

Note that the rotation periods given below are apparent periods and are not constant for a tumbler. There is another definition of rotation, sometimes called intrinsic rotation, that relates to how the point on the object which is oriented along the axis of angular momentum moves around a principal axis on the object. The period for this rotation is constant, but may be quite different from the apparent rotation period. For example, for 99942 Apophis it is around 263 hours, whereas the apparent period is only around 31 hours.[4]

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Natural satellites (moons)

This is a list of tumbling natural satellites (moons) that orbit planets and dwarf planets in the Solar System.

More information Moon, Satellite of ...

Small Solar System bodies

More information #, Small Solar System bodies (linked to articles only) ...
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See also

Notes

  1. Data source, reference: Warner, B.D., Harris, A.W., Pravec, P. (2009). Icarus 202, 134-146.[3] Updated November 2017. See: www.MinorPlanet.info

References

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