Back عائلة فلورا Arabic Família de Flora Catalan Flora familio Esperanto Familia de Flora (astronomía) Spanish Flora familia Basque Famille de Flore French फ़्लोरा परिवार Hindi Ֆլորայի ընտանիք Armenian Famiglia Flora Italian フローラ族 Japanese
The Flora family (adj. Florian; FIN: 402; also known as the Ariadne family) is a prominent family of stony asteroids located in the inner region of the asteroid belt. It is one of the largest families with more than 13,000 known members, or approximately 3.5% of all main-belt asteroids.[1]
The origin and properties of this family are relatively poorly understood. It is a very broad family which gradually fades into the surrounding background population. While the largest members, 8 Flora and 43 Ariadne, are located near the edge, there are several distinct groupings within the family, possibly created by later, secondary collisions. Due to this complex internal structure and the poorly defined boundaries, the Flora family has also been described as an asteroid clan. Only few interlopers have been identified. This family may be the source of the impactor that formed the Chicxulub crater, the likely culprit in the extinction of the dinosaurs.[2]