2009 WQ62 and 63440 (2001 MD30) and 331933 (2004 TV14) - A cluster?

According to http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/asteroidpairs.html asteroid 63440 (2001 MD30) and 331933 (2004 TV14)are considered to be an asteroid pair.

It seems to me that asteroid 2009 WQ62 (U code 2) has similar orbit parameters.

I made a simulation comparing clones of these three asteroids.

In the best case, it seems that the clones could be as near as about 20000 km (0.05 LD) and considering the periodicity maybe in the past they could be even more near.

I wonder whether these three asteroids can be considered to belong to a cluster of physically related asteroids ... or is it just a "statistical fluke"?

Quite unexpectedely, the two pairs 63440 (2001 MD30) and 331933 (2004 TV14) reached the minimum distance very recently ... but not particularly interesting as a close approach!

Actually what shown above is "the best case".

The simulation involved 100 clones for every asteroid, looking back atthe last 10^7 JD, output every 100 days.

I tried to achieve a "clone distribution" coherent with  the real ones  (with uncertainty read from JPL Horizons Web interface):

 

clones of 2004 TV14

[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Mission Design | Physical Parameters | Discovery Circumstances ]

[ show orbit diagram ]

Orbital Elements at Epoch 2458600.5 (2019-Apr-27.0) TDB Reference: JPL 12 (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)  Element Value Uncertainty (1-sigma)   Units  e .08843948312784312 8.4849e-08 a 1.937933640687897 1.2579e-08 au q 1.7665437911694 1.5808e-07 au i 19.98889163261023 8.0042e-06 deg node 229.4563583326874 1.4922e-05 deg peri 205.5107460888095 3.7259e-05 deg M 107.6788596209243 3.7957e-05 deg tp 2458305.762954214937 (2018-Jul-06.26295422) 0.00010276 TDB period 985.3868889042742 2.70 9.5939e-06 2.627e-08 d yr n .36533873552987 3.557e-09 deg/d Q 2.109323490206394 1.3691e-08 au

Orbit Determination Parameters    # obs. used (total)      166      data-arc span      6513 days (17.83 yr)      first obs. used      2001-07-01      last obs. used      2019-05-01      planetary ephem.      DE431      SB-pert. ephem.      SB431-N16      condition code      0      norm. resid. RMS      .60289      source      ORB      producer      Otto Matic      solution date      2019-Jul-13 19:23:38   Additional Information  Earth MOID = .787571 au   Jupiter MOID = 3.18038 au   T_jup = 3.828

331933 (2004 TV14)

Classification: Inner Main-belt Asteroid          SPK-ID: 2331933

	Clones			Target
	mean	sd		mean	sd
q	1.76654379	1.6e-07		1.76654379	1.6e-07
e	0.08843948	8e-08		0.08843948	8e-08
i	19.9888926	7.9e-06		19.98889163	8e-06
peri	205.51074903	3.748e-05		205.51074609	3.726e-05
node	229.45635664	1.488e-05		229.45635833	1.492e-05
tp	2458305.76295692	0.00010125		2458305.76295422	0.00010276

clones of 2001 MD30

[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Mission Design | Physical Parameters | Discovery Circumstances ]

[ show orbit diagram ]

Orbital Elements at Epoch 2458600.5 (2019-Apr-27.0) TDB Reference: JPL 22 (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)  Element Value Uncertainty (1-sigma)   Units  e .08842579345910323 5.0822e-08 a 1.937954727685901 7.1105e-09 au q 1.766589543202455 9.6691e-08 au i 19.9888850307184 5.8423e-06 deg node 229.4570161987519 1.1316e-05 deg peri 205.5022586712172 2.7892e-05 deg M 110.8795473674578 2.7236e-05 deg tp 2458296.997123521674 (2018-Jun-27.49712352) 7.3995e-05 TDB period 985.4029722010249 2.70 5.4233e-06 1.485e-08 d yr n .3653327726380746 2.0106e-09 deg/d Q 2.109319912169347 7.7392e-09 au

Orbit Determination Parameters    # obs. used (total)      913      data-arc span      15178 days (41.56 yr)      first obs. used      1977-10-20      last obs. used      2019-05-11      planetary ephem.      DE431      SB-pert. ephem.      SB431-N16      condition code      0      norm. resid. RMS      .51323      source      ORB      producer      Otto Matic      solution date      2019-May-30 05:23:47   Additional Information  Earth MOID = .787609 au   Jupiter MOID = 3.18036 au   T_jup = 3.828

63440 (2001 MD30)

Classification: Inner Main-belt Asteroid          SPK-ID: 2063440

	Clones			Target
	mean	sd		mean	sd
q	1.76658954	1e-07		1.76658954	1e-07
e	0.08842579	5e-08		0.08842579	5e-08
i	19.98888503	5.85e-06		19.98888503	5.84e-06
peri	205.50225416	2.817e-05		205.50225867	2.789e-05
node	229.45701705	1.135e-05		229.4570162	1.132e-05
tp	2458296.99711268	7.407e-05		2458296.99712352	7.4e-05

clones of 2009 WQ62

[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Mission Design | Physical Parameters ]

[ show orbit diagram ]

Orbital Elements at Epoch 2458600.5 (2019-Apr-27.0) TDB Reference: JPL 2 (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)  Element Value Uncertainty (1-sigma)   Units  e .08804383689315186 1.158e-05 a 1.93801279355177 2.6273e-07 au q 1.767382711259456 2.2659e-05 au i 19.97084321515778 0.00012904 deg node 229.9007989831988 5.6862e-05 deg peri 204.9048096269857 0.010821 deg M 167.0534712631619 0.008655 deg tp 2458143.215595676715 (2018-Jan-24.71559568) 0.023758 TDB period 985.4472601592967 2.70 0.00020039 5.486e-07 d yr n .3653163538572387 7.4287e-08 deg/d Q 2.108642875844083 2.8586e-07 au

Orbit Determination Parameters    # obs. used (total)      23      data-arc span      2927 days (8.01 yr)      first obs. used      2009-11-16      last obs. used      2017-11-21      planetary ephem.      DE431      SB-pert. ephem.      SB431-N16      condition code      2      norm. resid. RMS      .55576      source      ORB      producer      Otto Matic      solution date      2019-Sep-28 03:02:47   Additional Information  Earth MOID = .788005 au   Jupiter MOID = 3.18123 au   T_jup = 3.828

(2009 WQ62)

Classification: Inner Main-belt Asteroid          SPK-ID: 3846838

	Clones			Target
	mean	sd		mean	sd
q	1.76737733	2.263e-05		1.76738271	2.266e-05
e	0.08804657	1.157e-05		0.08804384	1.158e-05
i	19.97082241	0.00012943		19.97084322	0.00012904
peri	204.90656857	0.01081596		204.90480963	0.010821
node	229.90081685	5.704e-05		229.90079898	5.686e-05
tp	2458143.21931216	0.0237189		2458143.21559568	0.023758

Clones Comparison

I compared clones of every couple (100*100 comparisons) trying to trace the minimum distance that they reached (taking note of the time and relative velocities):

 Kind Regards,
Alessandro Odasso