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Earth trojan
An Earth trojan is an asteroid that orbits the Sun in the vicinity of the Earth–Sun Lagrange points L4 (leading 60°) or L5 (trailing 60°), thus having an orbit similar to Earth's. Only two Earth trojans have so far been discovered. The name "trojan" was first used in 1906 for the Jupiter trojans, the asteroids that were observed near the Lagrangian points of Jupiter's orbit.
An Earth-based search for L5 objects was conducted in 1994, covering 0.35 square degrees of sky, under poor observing conditions. That search failed to detect any objects:
In February 2017, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft performed a search from within the L4 region on its way to asteroid Bennu. No additional Earth trojans were discovered.
In April 2017, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft searched the L5 region while proceeding to asteroid Ryugu, but did not find any asteroids there.
A hypothetical planet-sized Earth trojan the size of Mars, given the name Theia, is thought by proponents of the giant-impact hypothesis to be the origin of the Moon. The hypothesis states that the Moon formed after Earth and Theia collided, showering material from the two planets into space. This material eventually accreted around Earth and into a single orbiting body, the Moon.
At the same time, material from Theia mixed and combined with Earth's mantle and core. Supporters of the giant-impact hypothesis theorise that Earth's large core in relation to its overall volume is as a result of this combination.
Astronomy continues to retain interest in the subject. A publication describes these reasons thus:
The survival to the present day of an ancient [Earth Trojan] population is reasonably assured provided Earth's orbit itself was not strongly perturbed since its formation. It is therefore pertinent to consider that modern theoretical models of planet formation find strongly chaotic orbital evolution during the final stages of assembly of the terrestrial planets and the Earth–Moon system.
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Earth trojan AI simulator
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Earth trojan
An Earth trojan is an asteroid that orbits the Sun in the vicinity of the Earth–Sun Lagrange points L4 (leading 60°) or L5 (trailing 60°), thus having an orbit similar to Earth's. Only two Earth trojans have so far been discovered. The name "trojan" was first used in 1906 for the Jupiter trojans, the asteroids that were observed near the Lagrangian points of Jupiter's orbit.
An Earth-based search for L5 objects was conducted in 1994, covering 0.35 square degrees of sky, under poor observing conditions. That search failed to detect any objects:
In February 2017, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft performed a search from within the L4 region on its way to asteroid Bennu. No additional Earth trojans were discovered.
In April 2017, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft searched the L5 region while proceeding to asteroid Ryugu, but did not find any asteroids there.
A hypothetical planet-sized Earth trojan the size of Mars, given the name Theia, is thought by proponents of the giant-impact hypothesis to be the origin of the Moon. The hypothesis states that the Moon formed after Earth and Theia collided, showering material from the two planets into space. This material eventually accreted around Earth and into a single orbiting body, the Moon.
At the same time, material from Theia mixed and combined with Earth's mantle and core. Supporters of the giant-impact hypothesis theorise that Earth's large core in relation to its overall volume is as a result of this combination.
Astronomy continues to retain interest in the subject. A publication describes these reasons thus:
The survival to the present day of an ancient [Earth Trojan] population is reasonably assured provided Earth's orbit itself was not strongly perturbed since its formation. It is therefore pertinent to consider that modern theoretical models of planet formation find strongly chaotic orbital evolution during the final stages of assembly of the terrestrial planets and the Earth–Moon system.