Young asteroids, which formed much later than those created during the formation of our Solar System, usually arise when large asteroids, planetesimals, or comets collide and break into smaller pieces, according to Universe Space Tech.

These smaller fragments form “asteroid families” that share common properties such as semi-major axis, eccentricity, and inclination—all of which describe their orbital paths.

Scientists usually describe young asteroid families as being less than about 10–15 million years old and consisting of at least three members. A new study published in the journal Icarus recently discovered 63 new young asteroid families less than 10 million years old. Although many of these young families probably exist in our Solar System, only 43 have been documented previously. The new study used a five-dimensional Hierarchical Clustering Method (HCM) with a catalog of 1.25 million asteroid orbits, allowing the team to bring the total number of known young families to 1,250.

The team searched for clusters with the correct orbital elements (semi-major axis, eccentricity, inclination, longitudes of nodes and perihelion) at different times over the last 10 million years to find groups with similar elements. The research team’s analysis showed that most groups were actually less than one million years old, significantly less than the 10 million year limit for young asteroid families in this study. They also found that most groups consisted of 3–10 members, although some had many more, with the largest group having 58 participants.

Scientists claim that this is only the tip of the iceberg, as it does not take into account faint asteroids at the limits of telescopic capabilities. It is likely that many more members of asteroid families will be discovered in the future.

Interestingly, about 54% of new families were discovered within older, already known families. This occurs when one asteroid in an older family breaks up into even smaller pieces, creating a family within another family.

The authors of the study note that there are likely many more young asteroid families. They say that detection is biased in favor of small, weak, and very young families, while older or more scattered families may be missed by their methods. Nevertheless, this work brings scientists one step closer to understanding the origin of meteorites and the ongoing evolution of our Solar System — perhaps even helping to identify potential asteroid impacts on Earth earlier.