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Tyche

258 Tyche

A small stony asteroid averaging some sixty-five kilometres in diameter that orbits within the inner part of the Solar System's Asteroid Belt. Tyche rotates on its axis in a period of approximatelty ten hours, though there is some small uncertainty over the precise rotation period. This asteroid takes its name from the Greek goddess of luck and fortune (equivalent to Roman Fortuna, who also give her name to an asteroid).

The path of Tyche's orbit through the Asteroid Belt suggests that it forms part of the Eunomia family, a collection of thousands of rocky fragments originating in an ancient collision, of which Eunomia (which is more than five times Tyche's diameter) is the largest. This asteroid family, however, has a large number of 'interloper' bodies that follow similar orbits without actually being part of the family, and there is thought to be a significant possibility that Tyche belongs to this interloper group.

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