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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.
Asteroids in the leading (L 4) orbit are named after Greek heroes (the "Greek node or camp" or "Achilles group"), and those at the trailing (L 5) orbit are named after the heroes of Troy (the "Trojan node or camp"). [2] The asteroids 617 Patroclus and 624 Hektor were named before the Greece/Troy rule was devised, resulting in a "Greek spy ...
An Earth trojan is an asteroid that orbits the Sun in the vicinity of the Earth–Sun Lagrange points L 4 (leading 60°) or L 5 (trailing 60°), thus having an orbit similar to Earth's. Only two Earth trojans have so far been discovered.
This is a list of Jupiter trojans that lie in the Trojan camp, an elongated curved region around the trailing L 5 Lagrangian point, 60° behind Jupiter in its orbit.. All the asteroids at the trailing L 5 point have names corresponding to participants on the Trojan side of the Trojan War, except for 617 Patroclus, which was named before this naming convention was instituted.
Lucy is a NASA space probe on a twelve-year journey to eight different asteroids. It is slated to visit two main belt asteroids as well as six Jupiter trojans – asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, orbiting either ahead of or behind the planet. [4] [5] All target encounters will be flyby encounters. [6]
Astronomers spotted a possible “sibling” planet that shares the orbit of another exoplanet in a system located 370 light-years away.
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]