Asteroid arjuna

An Arjuna asteroid is any near-Earth asteroid whose orbits are very similar to Earth's; that is, having a semi-major axis close to 1 AU, they have low orbital inclination and eccentricity, and orbital periods of about one Earth year. The definition is still informal and the term comes from the Hindu warrior hero Arjuna, present in the Sanskrit poem Mahabharata.

Due to their closeness to Earth, these asteroids can become temporary terrestrial Trojan asteroids, semi-satellites, or transient natural satellites, as well as drift into temporary horseshoe orbits. Arjuna asteroids are of great interest for extremely delta-v required to reach them from Earth, but due to the long synchronous periods—on the order of tens of years—a mission to these asteroids would be constrained by severe design and scheduling limitations.

Recent studies suggest that the population of these bodies may be greater than initially estimated.