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

Not Asteroids - More Likely To Resemble Comet

[szyzyg]

At this distance they're more likely to be captured Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Objects and therefore more likely to resemble comet nuclei. Neptune already has a large number of EKBO's in a 3:2 resonance, including the "planet" Pluto - we sometimes call objects in the 3:2 resonance with Neptune 'Plutinos'. So, the fact that some objects get caught in this stable 1:1 resonance hardly surprises me, but it's nice to have someone actually identify such objects.