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First Earth Trojan Asteroid Discovered

Posted by samzenpus on from the little-brother dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "Astronomers have found the very first Earth Trojan asteroid, a rock that more-or-less shares Earth's orbit around the Sun. Seen in data by NASA's WISE mission, 2010 TK7 is about 300 meters across and leads the Earth by 60 degrees around the Sun. Trojans have been seen for Jupiter, Neptune, and Mars, but this is the first for our planet."

3 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Isn't this a ticking time bomb? by iggymanz · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, the Lagrange points are stable garbage dumps for planets to put "small" things of 9% of its mass or less, the stuff stays there. It's one of the ways a planet clears its orbit.

  2. Re:Pluto rules by iggymanz · · Score: 1, Informative

    Nope, putting small objects into a Lagrange point of stability is one way a planet clears its orbit.

  3. Re:L4 by camperdave · · Score: 3, Informative

    It must be quite the asteroid to have an entire planet in it's L5 Lagrange point.

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