153 Hilda

Orbit and family

Hilda gives its name to an asteroid group called the Hilda group (or Hildas for short). It is not a true asteroid family, since the members are not physically related, but rather share similar orbital elements. The Hildas are locked in a 2:3 orbital resonance with Jupiter; since Jupiter takes 11.9 years to orbit the Sun while Hilda takes 7.9 years, Jupiter orbits the Sun twice for every 3 orbits that Hilda completes. There are over 1,100 other objects known to be in a 2:3 resonance with Jupiter. The asteroid is, however, the largest member of the ancient physically related Hilda family within the dynamical group of the same name.

The orbital plane of 153 Hilda is inclined at an angle of 7.82° to the plane of the ecliptic. It has an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.13971. Multiple light curves of the asteroid provide a consistent rotation period of approximately 5.9585 h