Second Trojan asteroid confirmed to be leading our planet around the Sun
- Reference: 1643794212
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/02/02/second_earth_trojan_asteroid_confirmed/
- Source link:
Dubbed 2020 XL5, the hunk of space rock was discovered in December 2020. Although excitement surrounded the early observations of a second Earth Trojan, low observational coverage meant uncertainties in the data were too great for a scientific confirmation.
Trojan asteroids are small bodies sharing an orbit with a planet, which remain in a stable orbit approximately 60 degrees ahead of or behind the main body.
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Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have them but it wasn't until 2011 that asteroid 2010 TK7 was found to be the first Earth could lay claim to. Now a second was confirmed this week.
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Around 1.18km across (give or take 80m), 2020 XL5 is probably made of carbon and is larger of the Earth's Trojan asteroids to be discovered, according to the [4]study published in Nature Communications . Both lead our planet in its trajectory around the Sun.
Toni Santana-Ros, postdoctoral researcher at Barcelona University's Institut de Ciències del Cosmos and his team used archival data from Catalina Sky Survey which revealed promising data from Mount Lemmon telescope in Arizona and the online repository of images from Víctor M. Blanco Telescope, Chile. They combined this data with optical images of 2020 XL5 from 4m class telescopes, the Southern Astrophysical Research telescope in Chile and the Lowell Discovery Telescope in Arizona.
[5]SpaceX Starlink sat streaks now present in nearly a fifth of all astronomical images snapped by Caltech telescope
[6]The James Webb Space Telescope has only gone and deployed its primary mirror
[7]Did you look up? New Year's Day boom over Pittsburgh was exploding meteor, says NASA
[8]Boffins' first take on asteroid dust from Japanese probe: Carbon rich, less lumpy than expected
They also made new observations using the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station 1m telescope on Tenerife, Spain, watching the skies from February 9 last year until March 16. The integration of the orbit data employed ESA AstOD orbit determination software.
As well as confirming the finding, their study shows the Earth Trojan's orbit is likely to remain stable for at least 4,000 years.
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They suggest the object may have been thrown out of the Solar System's main asteroid belt following an interaction with Jupiter, but more work is needed to confirm the idea.
Because it is bigger than its sibling, the newly confirmed space rock may be a better candidate for a future fly-by mission, the researchers suggested. ®
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Re: BBQ
"1.18 Km of carbon would make a hell of a barbeque."
I doubt it. I read somewhere once that if the sun was made of coal it would last 3 weeks.
XL5
I hope desperately that it was named after Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's Fireball XL5, and not something more mundane!
So if we're going to send any sort of Lander, it needs to be made of Wood right. Well, we've got just the thing on the way - https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/04/wooden_satellite_japan/
Or maybe the mission just needs an appropriate Name - Trojan Hunk Of Rock Satellite Explorer (naturally shortened to Trojan HORSE)...
Trojan Carbon - An alien gift
A rogue made of carbon can be molded into any shape quite easily. They should send an artist in a rocket to Carve a Horse out of the asteroid. Then all Aliens should be directed to that site and can be burned like a real Trojan.
Actually, Aliens may already have carved the horse and our detection of said rogue is an invitation to investigate. That type of horse may be our doom. But, an asteroid of carved carbon of that size, what is not to like. At least we can have commercial flight to facilitate asteroid tourism.
BBQ
1.18 Km of carbon would make a hell of a barbeque.
Kudos and a beer for those who found it though, finding such a small object some 300 million Km away. Knowing more or less where to look helps but it is still impressive work.