Researchers in a new study using data from NASA’s NEOWISE space telescope have successfully traced a family of large low albedo asteroids known as the Euphrosynes. These are dark Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), researchers said.

As per study researchers, 31 Euphrosyne is about 156 miles (260 km) across and is one of the ten largest asteroids in the belt. This asteroid is thought to be a remnant of a massive collision about 700 million years ago.

It is located in the pouter main asteroid belt a very high inclination, said researchers. The Euphrosyne asteroid family occupies a unique place in orbital element space among families.

Researchers for the study studied 1,400 Euphrosyne asteroids, which turned out to be large and dark highly inclined and elliptical orbits. These traits make them good candidates for the source of some of the dark NEOs the NEOWISE telescope detects and discovers.

As per study authors, this particular asteroid family can be the source of some of the dark NEOs found to be on long, highly inclined orbits.

Researchers during the study found that through gravitational interactions with Saturn, the Euphrosyne asteroids can evolve into NEOs over timescales of millions of years.

Study lead author Dr. Joseph Masiero of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said, “The Euphrosynes have gentle resonance with the orbit of Saturn that slowly moves these objects, eventually turning some of them into NEOs. This particular gravitational resonance tends to push some of larger fragments of the Euphrosyne family into near-Earth space”.

It has been said that after studying the Euphrosynes with NEOWISE, Dr Masiero and co-authors have been able to measure their sizes and the amount of solar energy they reflect.