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(614689) 2020 XL5
(614689) 2020 XL5 (provisional designation 2020 XL5) is a near-Earth asteroid and Earth trojan discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 survey at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii on 12 December 2020. It oscillates around the Sun–Earth L4 Lagrangian point (leading 60°), one of the dynamically stable locations where the combined gravitational force acts through the Sun's and Earth's barycenter. Analysis of 2020 XL5's trojan orbit stability suggests it will remain around Earth's L4 point for at least four thousand years until gravitational perturbations from repeated close encounters with Venus destabilize its trojan configuration. With a diameter of about 1.2 km (0.75 mi), 2020 XL5 is the second Earth trojan discovered, after (706765) 2010 TK7 (about 300 m (980 ft) in diameter), and is the largest of its kind known.
2020 XL5 was discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 survey at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii on 12 December 2020. It was first observed in the constellation Crater at an apparent magnitude of 21.4. The asteroid was moving at an on-sky rate of 3.02 arcseconds per minute, from a distance of 0.68 AU (102 million km; 63 million mi) from Earth.
The asteroid was subsequently listed on the Minor Planet Center's Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page (NEOCP) as P11aRcq. Over two days, follow-up observations were carried out by the Višnjan Observatory (L01), ESA Optical Ground Station (J04), and Cerro Tololo Observatory (807). The asteroid was identified in earlier Mount Lemmon Survey (G96) observations from 26 November 2020. The listing was confirmed and publicly announced as 2020 XL5 on 14 December 2020.
This minor planet was given the permanent number 614689 by the Minor Planet Center on 28 March 2022 and is now eligible for naming. In accordance with the International Astronomical Union's naming conventions for near-Earth objects, 2020 XL5 will be given a mythological name.
The orbit of 2020 XL5 is well known with an uncertainty parameter of 0 and a long observation arc over 8 years. The asteroid has been identified in several precovery observations by various sky surveys, including Pan-STARRS, from dates as far back as December 2012.
2020 XL5 orbits the Sun at an average distance of 1.001 AU once every 365.8 days, or approximately 1 Earth year. Its orbit has a high eccentricity of 0.388 and an inclination of 13.8° with respect to the ecliptic plane. Over the course of its orbit, its distance from the Sun ranges from 0.61 AU at perihelion to 1.39 AU at aphelion, crossing the orbits of Venus and Earth. Since its orbit crosses Earth's while having a semi-major axis greater than 1 AU (by a small margin), 2020 XL5 is classified as an Apollo asteroid.
Trojan objects are most easily conceived as orbiting at a Lagrangian point, a dynamically stable location (where the combined gravitational force acts through the Sun's and Earth's barycenter) 60 degrees ahead of (L4) or behind (L5) a massive orbiting body, in a type of 1:1 orbital resonance. In reality, they oscillate around such a point.
On 26 January 2021, amateur astronomer Tony Dunn reported that 2020 XL5's nominal trajectory appears to be librating about Earth's leading L4 Lagrangian point, suspecting it to be an Earth trojan. Subsequent analysis confirmed modeling stability for at least several thousand years into the future based on existing orbital parameters. This would make 2020 XL5 more stable than the prototype L4 Earth trojan 2010 TK7, which is potentially unstable on timescales of less than 2,000 years. Additional follow-up observations and precoveries confirmed 2020 XL5's trojan nature, and showed that it will leave trojan orbit at least 4,000 years into the future. Numerical simulations indicate that 2020 XL5 has likely been captured into the L4 Langrangian point since the 15th century.
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(614689) 2020 XL5
(614689) 2020 XL5 (provisional designation 2020 XL5) is a near-Earth asteroid and Earth trojan discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 survey at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii on 12 December 2020. It oscillates around the Sun–Earth L4 Lagrangian point (leading 60°), one of the dynamically stable locations where the combined gravitational force acts through the Sun's and Earth's barycenter. Analysis of 2020 XL5's trojan orbit stability suggests it will remain around Earth's L4 point for at least four thousand years until gravitational perturbations from repeated close encounters with Venus destabilize its trojan configuration. With a diameter of about 1.2 km (0.75 mi), 2020 XL5 is the second Earth trojan discovered, after (706765) 2010 TK7 (about 300 m (980 ft) in diameter), and is the largest of its kind known.
2020 XL5 was discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 survey at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii on 12 December 2020. It was first observed in the constellation Crater at an apparent magnitude of 21.4. The asteroid was moving at an on-sky rate of 3.02 arcseconds per minute, from a distance of 0.68 AU (102 million km; 63 million mi) from Earth.
The asteroid was subsequently listed on the Minor Planet Center's Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page (NEOCP) as P11aRcq. Over two days, follow-up observations were carried out by the Višnjan Observatory (L01), ESA Optical Ground Station (J04), and Cerro Tololo Observatory (807). The asteroid was identified in earlier Mount Lemmon Survey (G96) observations from 26 November 2020. The listing was confirmed and publicly announced as 2020 XL5 on 14 December 2020.
This minor planet was given the permanent number 614689 by the Minor Planet Center on 28 March 2022 and is now eligible for naming. In accordance with the International Astronomical Union's naming conventions for near-Earth objects, 2020 XL5 will be given a mythological name.
The orbit of 2020 XL5 is well known with an uncertainty parameter of 0 and a long observation arc over 8 years. The asteroid has been identified in several precovery observations by various sky surveys, including Pan-STARRS, from dates as far back as December 2012.
2020 XL5 orbits the Sun at an average distance of 1.001 AU once every 365.8 days, or approximately 1 Earth year. Its orbit has a high eccentricity of 0.388 and an inclination of 13.8° with respect to the ecliptic plane. Over the course of its orbit, its distance from the Sun ranges from 0.61 AU at perihelion to 1.39 AU at aphelion, crossing the orbits of Venus and Earth. Since its orbit crosses Earth's while having a semi-major axis greater than 1 AU (by a small margin), 2020 XL5 is classified as an Apollo asteroid.
Trojan objects are most easily conceived as orbiting at a Lagrangian point, a dynamically stable location (where the combined gravitational force acts through the Sun's and Earth's barycenter) 60 degrees ahead of (L4) or behind (L5) a massive orbiting body, in a type of 1:1 orbital resonance. In reality, they oscillate around such a point.
On 26 January 2021, amateur astronomer Tony Dunn reported that 2020 XL5's nominal trajectory appears to be librating about Earth's leading L4 Lagrangian point, suspecting it to be an Earth trojan. Subsequent analysis confirmed modeling stability for at least several thousand years into the future based on existing orbital parameters. This would make 2020 XL5 more stable than the prototype L4 Earth trojan 2010 TK7, which is potentially unstable on timescales of less than 2,000 years. Additional follow-up observations and precoveries confirmed 2020 XL5's trojan nature, and showed that it will leave trojan orbit at least 4,000 years into the future. Numerical simulations indicate that 2020 XL5 has likely been captured into the L4 Langrangian point since the 15th century.
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