Neptune Trojan

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TNOs and similar bodies
Cis-Neptunian objects Centaurs Neptune Trojan Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) Classical KBOs (Cubewanos) Resonant KBOs Plutinos (2:3 Resonance) Scattered disc objects (SDOs) Oort cloud objects (OCOs)

As of March 2007, there are five^[1] known Trojan asteroids of Neptune which have the same orbital period as the planet.^[2] They lie in the elongated, curved region around the L₄ Lagrangian point 60° ahead of Neptune. These are 2001 QR₃₂₂, 2004 UP₁₀, 2005 TN₅₃, 2005 TO₇₄ and 2006 RJ₁₀₃.

The discovery of 2005 TN₅₃ on a high inclination (>25°) orbit is significant as it suggests a ‘thick’ cloud of Trojans. It is believed that large (radius ≈ 100 km) Neptune Trojans could outnumber Jupiter Trojans by an order of magnitude ^{[3] [4]}.

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ 2005 TN₇₄, listed earlier as a Neptune Trojan, proved to be a scattered disk object.
2. ^ List Of Neptune Trojans (March 8, 2007) at cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/.
3. ^ E. I. Chiang and Y. Lithwick Neptune Trojans as a Testbed for Planet Formation, The Astrophysical Journal, 628, pp. 520–532 Preprint
4. ^ space.com popular article (Jan 2007)