New Earth Trojan asteroid

Date:
February 1, 2022
Source:
University of Barcelona
Summary:
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of the second Earth Trojan
asteroid known to date, the 2020 XL5, after a decade of search.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
An International team of astronomers led by researcher Toni Santana-Ros,
from the University of Alicante and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of
the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), has confirmed the existence of the
second Earth Trojan asteroid known to date, the 2020 XL5, after a decade
of search.

The results of the study have been published in the journal Nature Communications.


==========================================================================
All celestial objects that roam around our solar system feel the
gravitational influence of all the other massive bodies that build it, including the Sun and the planets. If we consider only the Earth-Sun
system, Newton's laws of gravity state that there are five points where
all the forces that act upon an object located at that point cancel
each other out. These regions are called Lagrangian points, and they
are areas of great stability. Earth Trojan asteroids are small bodies
that orbit around the L4 or L5 Lagrangian points of the Sun-Earth system.

These results confirm that 2020 XL5 is the second transient Earth Trojan asteroid known to date, and everything indicates it will remain Trojan --
that is, it will be located at the Lagrangian point -- for four thousand
years, thus it is qualified as transient. The researchers have provided
an estimation of the object bulk size (around one kilometer in diameter,
larger than the Earth Trojan asteroid known to date, the 2010 TK7,
which was 0.3 kilometres in diameter), and have made a study of the
impulse a rocket needs to reach the asteroid from Earth.

Although Trojan asteroids have been known to exist for decades in other
planets such as Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, it was not until
2011 that the first Earth Trojan asteroid was found. The astronomers have described many observational strategies for the detection of new Earth
Trojans. "There have been many previous attempts to find Earth Trojans, including in situ surveys such as the search within the L4 region,
carried out by the NASA OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft, or the search within
the L5 region, conducted by the JAXA Hayabusa- 2 mission," notes Toni Santana-Ros, author of the publication. He adds that "all the dedicated
efforts had so far failed to discover any new member of this population."
The low success in these searches can be explained by the geometry of an
object orbiting the Earth-Sun L4 or L5 as seen from our planet. These
objects are usually observable close to the sun. The observation time
window between the asteroid rising above the horizon and sunrise is,
therefore, very small.

Therefore, astronomers point their telescopes very low on the sky where
the visibility conditions are at their worst and with the handicap of
the imminent sunlight saturating the background light of the images just
a few minutes in the observation.

To solve this problem, the team carried out a search of 4-meter telescopes
that would be able to observe under such conditions, and they finally
obtained the data from the 4.3m Lowel Discovery telescope (Arizona,
United States), and the 4.1m SOAR telescope, operated by the National
Science Foundation NOIRLab (Cerro Pacho'n, Chile).

The discovery of the Earth Trojan asteroids is very significant
because these can hold a pristine record on the early conditions in the formation of the Solar System, since the primitive trojans might have been co-orbiting the planets during their formation, and they add restrictions
to the dynamic evolution of the Solar System. In addition, Earth Trojans
are the ideal candidates for potential space missions in the future.

Since the L4 Lagrangian point shares the same orbit as the Earth,
it takes a low change in velocity to be reached. This implies that a
spacecraft would need a low energy budget to remain in its shared orbit
with the Earth, keeping a fixed distance to it. "Earth Trojans could
become ideal bases for an advanced exploration of the Solar System;
they could even become a source of resources," concludes Santana-Ros.

The discovery of more trojans will enhance our knowledge of the dynamics
of these unknown objects and will provide a better understanding of the mechanics that allow them to be transient.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Barcelona. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Earth_Trojan_asteroid ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. T. Santana-Ros, M. Micheli, L. Faggioli, R. Cennamo, M. Devoge`le,
A.

Alvarez-Candal, D. Oszkiewicz, O. Rami'rez, P.-Y. Liu,
P. G. Benavidez, A. Campo Bagatin, E. J. Christensen,
R. J. Wainscoat, R. Weryk, L. Fraga, C. Bricen~o,
L. Conversi. Orbital stability analysis and photometric
characterization of the second Earth Trojan asteroid
2020 XL5. Nature Communications, 2022; 13 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41467-022-27988-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220201143948.htm

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