A Survey for Neptune Trojans

Details A Survey for Neptune Trojans A Survey for Neptune Trojans

Feb 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007noao.prop..366s&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2007A-0366

Physics

Scientific paper

Trojan asteroids share a planet's semi-major axis but lead or follow the planet by about 60 degrees near the two triangular Lagrangian points of equilibrium. These minor planets were likely captured in these locations around the planet formation epoch and thus their current dynamical and physical properties will help constrain the formation, evolution and migration of the planets. The Neptune Trojans currently consist of only four known objects, all in the leading L4 cloud. Three of these were discovered in our initial survey of the region allowing us to determine that Neptune was likely on a much more eccentric orbit in the distant past (Sheppard and Trujillo 2006). We propose to obtain the first wide-field survey for Neptune Trojans in the trailing L5 region using the CTIO 4m telescope. Only with knowledge of the Neptune Trojan numbers and orbits in both the L4 and L5 clouds will we be able to understand the Trojans formation and evolution. We will also take advantage of the current fortuitous alignment of the Uranus and Neptune Trojan regions to our line of sight to search both regions simultaneously.

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