Trojan Asteroids Found In Neptunian Orbit

Agent Provocateur writes to mention a release at Science Daily about three rogue asteroids discovered by the Carnegie Institute. The objects are in about the same orbit as Neptune, lending evidence that the planet has a cloud of these 'Trojan' celestial bodies. From the article: "Trojan asteroids cluster around one of two points that lead or trail the planet by about 60 degrees in its orbit, known as Lagrangian points. In these areas, the gravitational pull of the planet and the Sun combine to lock the asteroids into stable orbits synchronized with the planet. German Astronomer Max Wolf identified the first Jupiter Trojan in 1906, and since then, more than 1800 such asteroids have been identified marching along that planet's orbit. "

Comments

Re:how can they be in rest?

[SEWilco]

If there is a repulsive effect, it probably is a resonance effect of orbital mechanics. For example, an object near L4 when attracted back toward the planet would be pulled into an orbit with a smaller radius and thus tends to orbit faster than the planet and moves away from it.

Re:Ah yes.. perfect....

[Artifakt]

Here you go:

http://www.astro.uwo.ca/~wiegert/3753/3753.html

I'm keeping Cruithne itself for my own Uber-secret plan for world domination, but the article lists several others - Happy Bwaaahhh-hah-hah-hah'ing!