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In astronomy, a trojan is a small celestial body (mostly asteroids) that shares the orbit of a larger body, remaining in a stable orbit approximately 60° ahead of or behind the main body near one of its Lagrangian points L 4 and L 5. Trojans can share the orbits of planets or of large moons. Trojans are one type of co-orbital object.
The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each trojan librates around one of Jupiter's stable Lagrange points: either L 4, existing 60° ahead of the planet in its orbit, or L 5, 60° behind.
This makes 2020 XL 5 the largest Earth trojan asteroid known to date, being up to three times as large as the 0.3 km (0.19 mi)-sized 2010 TK 7. [ 7 ] Because 2020 XL 5 is only visible at low altitudes in the sky during twilight , atmospheric distortions and scattered light from the Sun hinder accurate photometry of the asteroid's light curve ...
The L 5 group (shown in green) and the L 4 group (light blue) of Mars and Jupiter trojan asteroids shown along with the orbits of Jupiter and the inner planets. Mars is shown in red. The outer orbit is that of Jupiter. Animation of 1999 UJ7 relative to Sun and Mars 1600-2500
Hektor is the first known trojan with a satellite companion and, so far, one of only four known binary trojan asteroids in the L 4 group (the others being 16974 Iphthime, 3548 Eurybates, and 15094 Polymele). 617 Patroclus, another large trojan asteroid of the L 5 group, consists of two almost equal-sized components. [13]
Astronomers spotted a possible “sibling” planet that shares the orbit of another exoplanet in a system located 370 light-years away.
Here's what to know about Apophis and how space agencies hope to protect Earth from other asteroids like it. Apophis to make 2029 flyby to Earth Apophis is projected to pass within 20,000 miles of ...
617 Patroclus (/ p ə ˈ t r oʊ k l ə s / pə-TROH-kləs) is a large binary Jupiter trojan asteroid. It is a dark D-type asteroid and a slow rotator, due to the 103-hour orbital period of its two components. It is one of five Jupiter trojan asteroids targeted by the Lucy space probe, and is scheduled for a flyby in 2033.