The Second Earth Trojan 2020 XL$_{5}$
| Autor: | Paul Wiegert, Man-To Hui, David J. Tholen, Dora Fohring |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) education.field_of_study biology Population Lagrangian point Astronomy FOS: Physical sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics Venus Orbital eccentricity biology.organism_classification Space and Planetary Science Trojan Asteroid Earth (chemistry) education Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics |
| DOI: | 10.48550/arxiv.2111.05058 |
| Popis: | The Earth Trojans are co-orbitals librating around the Lagrange points $L_4$ or $L_5$ of the Sun-Earth system. Although many numerical studies suggest that they can maintain their dynamical status and be stable on timescales up to a few tens of thousands of years or even longer, they remain an elusive population. Thus far only one transient member (2010 TK$_7$) has been discovered serendipitously. Here, we present a dynamical study of asteroid 2020 XL$_5$. With our meticulous followup astrometric observations of the object, we confirmed that it is a new Earth Trojan. However, its eccentric orbit brings it close encounters with Venus on a frequent basis. Based on our N-body integration, we found that the asteroid was captured into the current Earth Trojan status in the 15th century, and then it has a likelihood of 99.5% to leave the $L_4$ region within the next $\sim$10 kyr. Therefore, it is most likely that 2020 XL$_5$ is dynamically unstable over this timescale. Comment: Accepted to ApJL; 5 figures, 3 tables |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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