Comments on: Ruh Roh, a Trojan Asteroid https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/ Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:28:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Calli Arcale https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505901 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:28:24 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505901 Trojan companions are actually fairly common, and it was expected that Earth would have some; nobody’d ever spotted them. Mars has companions, as do Jupiter (with the two groups traditionally named for Greeks and Trojans, giving name to the class of object) and Neptune. Saturn and Uranus probably do too, but there’s a lot of luck in spotting them. Several of Saturn’s moons have trojan companions. Helene is a leading trojan companion of Dione, and Telesto and Calypso are trojan companions of Tethys (Telesto leads, Calypso trails).

]]> By: Raging Bee https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505900 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:12:30 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505900 Whoa. What correlation of forces would cause an asteroid to have an orbital path like THAT?

I’ve known about Lagrange points for some time, but I’ve never heard an object could be moored into one.

Technically, there are called Lissajous orbits…

As opposed to frabjous orbits?

]]> By: Raging Bee https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505902 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:12:30 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505902 Whoa. What correlation of forces would cause an asteroid to have an orbital path like THAT?

I’ve known about Lagrange points for some time, but I’ve never heard an object could be moored into one.

Technically, there are called Lissajous orbits…

As opposed to frabjous orbits?

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505899 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:00:56 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505899 Phil has a detailed description of what’s going on with this rock: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/07/27/wise-finds-the-very-first-earth-trojan-asteroid/

]]> By: betty https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505898 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:49:03 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505898 I totally agree with Birger! Haven’t g straightenersot a lot of confidence in the wise mision

]]> By: Birger Johansson https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505897 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:43:49 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/ruh-roh-a-trojan-asteroid/#comment-505897 Alas, since “trojan” asteroids rarely stay near the L4 and L5 poins, but rather oscillate around them with great orbital inclinations, the odds are you cannot make a sample-return mission to this one without excessive delta-v.

]]>