TY - JOUR
T1 - A centenary survey of orbits of co-orbitals of Jupiter
AU - Stacey, R. Greg
AU - Connors, Martin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Academic Research Fund of Athabasca University. RGS thanks NSERC for an Undergraduate Summer Research Award. We also thank D.P. Hube for use of computers and office space. We thank Seppo Mikkola for use of a clone generation program which was passed on through Ramon Brasser, whom we also thank for invaluable advice and help along the way. Paul Wiegert has also given useful comments on some aspects of this study and furnished Fig. 1 . Use of the NASA Astrophysics Data System, including for study of historic documents, and the Astdys facilities of the University of Pisa, was very helpful in preparing this work. Thorough and helpful referee comments led to substantial improvements, notably in the numerical extensions to libration period.
PY - 2008/3
Y1 - 2008/3
N2 - Jupiter's Trojan asteroids fulfill the prediction of Lagrange that orbits can be stable when a small body orbits in specific locations relative to its 'parent' planet and the Sun. The first such Trojan asteroid was discovered slightly over 100 years ago, in 1906, and subsequently similar asteroids have been discovered associated with Mars and with Neptune. To date no Trojans have been discovered associated with Earth, but several horseshoe asteroids, co-orbital asteroids moving along a large range of the Earth's orbit, have been found. Since the number of detected Jupiter Trojans has increased dramatically in the last few years, we have conducted a numerical survey of their orbital motions, focusing on comparing results about libration properties to theory. We use the enlarged database of information about Trojans from the Minor Planet Center Orbital Database (MPCORB), as well as the Mercury integrator package developed by Chambers [1999. A hybrid symplectic integrator that permits close encounters between massive bodies. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 304(4), 793-799] to summarize their properties as now known.
AB - Jupiter's Trojan asteroids fulfill the prediction of Lagrange that orbits can be stable when a small body orbits in specific locations relative to its 'parent' planet and the Sun. The first such Trojan asteroid was discovered slightly over 100 years ago, in 1906, and subsequently similar asteroids have been discovered associated with Mars and with Neptune. To date no Trojans have been discovered associated with Earth, but several horseshoe asteroids, co-orbital asteroids moving along a large range of the Earth's orbit, have been found. Since the number of detected Jupiter Trojans has increased dramatically in the last few years, we have conducted a numerical survey of their orbital motions, focusing on comparing results about libration properties to theory. We use the enlarged database of information about Trojans from the Minor Planet Center Orbital Database (MPCORB), as well as the Mercury integrator package developed by Chambers [1999. A hybrid symplectic integrator that permits close encounters between massive bodies. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 304(4), 793-799] to summarize their properties as now known.
KW - Asteroid
KW - Jupiter
KW - Libration
KW - Trojans
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=39549092838&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.pss.2007.11.002
DO - 10.1016/j.pss.2007.11.002
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:39549092838
SN - 0032-0633
VL - 56
SP - 358
EP - 367
JO - Planetary and Space Science
JF - Planetary and Space Science
IS - 3-4
ER -