Final answer:
The asteroid Icarus, with an orbit varying between 0.19 AU and 1.97 AU, intersects Earth's orbit at 1 AU, but its crossing frequency needs more information than just the orbital extremities to be calculated. Dwarf planets like Pluto and Eris, with orbits at 40 AU and 96 AU respectively, serve as comparisons to understand the great variations in orbital distances and periods within our solar system.
Step-by-step explanation:
The asteroid Icarus has an elliptical orbit that varies from 0.19 AU to 1.97 AU from the Sun. By crossing Earth's orbital radius, which is approximately 1 AU from the Sun, Icarus would do so whenever its orbital path intersects that of Earth's orbit. However, the orbital period or frequency of such crossings is not provided by the mere aphelion and perihelion distances. To determine how often it crosses Earth's orbital radius, we would typically use Kepler's Third Law, which relates the semi-major axis of an orbit to its orbital period.
For comparison, the dwarf planet Pluto orbits at an average distance of 40 AU from the Sun, and the dwarf planet Eris is currently about 96 AU from the Sun. These figures illustrate how much farther these bodies are compared to Icarus, with Pluto and Eris having much longer orbital periods due to their greater distances from the Sun.