Uppsala-DLR Trojan Survey

The Uppsala-DLR Trojan Survey (UDTS) is an effort to study the movements and locations of asteroids near Jupiter, specifically those in orbits similar to that of Jupiter (in the Jovian Lagrangian cloud), and those that Jupiter blocks from the Earth. Don't confused it with the Uppsala-DLR Asteroid Survey (UDAS), which started shortly after the UDTS concluded.

This group of about 400 asteroids is called the Trojans, because of the naming scheme and each asteroid is named after Greek and Trojan heroes.

The survey was carried out at the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in Sweden, in collaboration with DLR, the Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center), by Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist, Gerhard Hahn, Stefano Mottola, Magnus Lundström and Uri Carsenty.

The ESO Schmidt telescope was used to survey 900 square degrees of the Jovian L4 Lagrangian point during the fall of 1996 to identify the asteroids, and additional positions and magnitude data were detected using the 0.6-m Bochum telescope at La Silla Observatory.

There is some notable controversy over P/1997 T3, one of the objects found in the Uppsala-DLR Trojan Survey, namely an asteroid-like object with a comet-like tail. It is thought that this tail is composed of dust, due to its consistent appearance, and the fact that it is pointing towards the Sun, not away from it.

External links

• Comet or Asteroid?
• Trojans

See also

• Uppsala Astronomical Observatory