TY - JOUR
T1 - A retrograde object near Jupiter's orbit
AU - Connors, M.
AU - Wiegert, P.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the University of Pisa, NASA JPL, and the Minor Planet Center for web resources facilitating the study of small Solar System bodies. This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/2
Y1 - 2018/2
N2 - Asteroid 2007 VW266 is among the rare objects with a heliocentric retrograde orbit, and its semimajor axis is within a Hill sphere radius of that of Jupiter. This raised the interesting possibility that it could be in co-orbital retrograde resonance with Jupiter, a second “counter-orbital” object in addition to recently discovered 2015 BZ509. We find instead that the object is in 13/14 retrograde mean motion resonance (also referred to as 13/-14). The object is shown to have entered its present orbit about 1700 years ago, and it will leave it in about 8000 years, both through close approach to Jupiter. Entry and exit states both avoid 1:1 retrograde resonance, but the retrograde nature is preserved. The temporary stable state is due to an elliptic orbit with high inclination keeping nodal passages far from the associated planet. We discuss the motion of this unusual object based on modeling and theory, and its observational prospects.
AB - Asteroid 2007 VW266 is among the rare objects with a heliocentric retrograde orbit, and its semimajor axis is within a Hill sphere radius of that of Jupiter. This raised the interesting possibility that it could be in co-orbital retrograde resonance with Jupiter, a second “counter-orbital” object in addition to recently discovered 2015 BZ509. We find instead that the object is in 13/14 retrograde mean motion resonance (also referred to as 13/-14). The object is shown to have entered its present orbit about 1700 years ago, and it will leave it in about 8000 years, both through close approach to Jupiter. Entry and exit states both avoid 1:1 retrograde resonance, but the retrograde nature is preserved. The temporary stable state is due to an elliptic orbit with high inclination keeping nodal passages far from the associated planet. We discuss the motion of this unusual object based on modeling and theory, and its observational prospects.
KW - Asteroids: general – minor planets
KW - Asteroids: individual: 2007 VW266
KW - Celestial mechanics – minor planets
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85035208724&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.pss.2017.11.009
DO - 10.1016/j.pss.2017.11.009
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:85035208724
SN - 0032-0633
VL - 151
SP - 71
EP - 77
JO - Planetary and Space Science
JF - Planetary and Space Science
ER -