The Themis family (adj. Themistian; FIN:
602) is a
family of carbonaceous
asteroids located in the
outer portion of the
asteroid belt, at a mean distance of 3.13
AU from the
Sun. It is one of the
largest families with over 4700 known members,[1] and consists of a well-defined core of larger bodies surrounded by a region of smaller ones. The
collisional Themis family is named after its
parent body, the asteroid
24 Themis, discovered on 5 April 1853 by Italian astronomer
Annibale de Gasparis.[2]
Description
The Themis family is one of the largest and longest-recognized dynamical families of asteroids, and is made up of
C-type asteroids with a composition believed to be similar to that of
carbonaceous chondrites.[3] To date, the Themis family comprises approximately 535 known asteroids.
Asteroids in the Themis family share the following orbital elements: