2nd Trojan Asteroid Sharing Earth's Orbit Discovered by Astronomers

An international team of astronomers has confirmed the existence of a second Trojan Asteroid classified as the 2020 XL5. Toni Santana-Ros has led the team of astronomers from University of Alicante and Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona in making this discovery.

Existence of the Trojan asteroid

Astronomers first discovered this new object on December 12, 2020 in Hawaii using the PanSTARRS1 survey telescope. Without enough data, scientists could not know if the orbit just passed ours or if it was a true Trojan asteroid.

According to EarthSky, the first Trojan asteroid and the best-known Trojan asteroid in our solar system either leads or follows Jupiter in orbit. There are over 7,000 Jupiter Trojans on Jupiter.

This makes sense because Jupiter is the heaviest planet in our solar system. Its gravity would naturally pull more asteroids toward itself than, for example, Earth's much weaker gravity.

Lagrange factors exist around different planets too, they may be equilibrium factors for any items with small mass below the have an impact on a lot greater huge bodies.

According to Space, there are 3 such factors at the sun-Earth line (L1, L2, and L3, see photo below), first observed mathematically via Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler. Spacecraft, including James Webb Space Telescope (at L2) and DSCOVR (at L1), may be maintained there with simplest a small expenditure of fuel.

The other two points L4 and L5 were discovered in 1772 by Joseph-Louis Lagrange, a pupil of Euler. Here, a low-mass object that forms an equilateral triangle with the sun and the earth is in stable equilibrium. These points are 60 degrees forward and 60 degrees backward, and 60 degrees (see image above) is one-sixth of Earth's orbit, so it's two months away. As per Space.

Trojan asteroids have been known for decades on other planets such as Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, but it wasn't until 2011 that the first terrestrial Trojan asteroids were discovered. Astronomers have described various observational strategies to detect the new Earth Trojan, as per SciTechDaily.

Read more: Asteroid Named After SOPHIE by the International Astronomical Union

More possible discoveries

Asteroid 2020 XL5 is currently in a stable orbit at Lagrange point 4 of the Sun. It orbits the sun at the same distance as the earth and leads the earth in an orbit around the sun 365 days. As per Earthsky

Earth Trojans are the ideal candidates for potential space missions in the future since the discovery of the Earth Trojan asteroids is very significant because these can hold a pristine record of the early conditions in the formation of the Solar System since the primitive Trojans might have been co-orbiting the planets during their formation. As per SciTechDaily.

As published by Space, there may be more terrestrial Trojans, but like the 2010 TK7 and 2020 XL5, they are difficult to detect from Earth as they can be seen very low in the dawn sky if at L4 and only visible right after sunset if at L5. None of them yet discovered. Their orbits aren't stable for millions of years, so they can't be remnants that existed from the time the Earth was formed but had to be displaced later.

Read more: First private mission to Venus could open new avenues for space exploration