[AZ-Observing] Neptune Trojan discovered
- From: Brian Skiff <Brian.Skiff@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 14:14:17 -0700 (MST)
This will probably be getting a little media attention in the coming days.
Details and images linked from: http://www.lowell.edu/Press/20030108.html
\Brian
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FIRST NEPTUNE TROJAN DISCOVERED
JANUARY 8, 2003; FLAGSTAFF AZ Astronomers have discovered a small
object orbiting the sun at the distance of Neptune and have shown it to
be the first Neptune Trojan.
This small body, known as 2001 QR322, leads Neptune around its orbit in
such a way as to maintain, on average, approximately equal distance from
Neptune and the Sun. As such, it mimics the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter
which orbit the Sun in two clouds approximately 60 degrees ahead of and
behind Jupiter. The first Jovian Trojan was discovered in 1906 and
approximately 1560 such objects are known today. However, until the
discovery of 2001 QR322, Trojan-like objects associated with other giant
planets had not been found.
2001 QR322 was discovered in the course of Lowell Observatory's Deep
Ecliptic Survey, a NASA-funded survey of the outer Solar System that
uses the National Science Foundation's telescopes at Kitt Peak National
Observatory near Tucson, Ariz., and Cerro Tololo Inter-American
Observatory in Chile. Astronomers from Lowell Observatory, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at
Berkeley, the University of Hawaii, the University of Pennsylvania, and
the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory comprise the Deep Ecliptic
Survey team.
The team first detected 2001 QR322 on August 21, 2001 in deep digital
images taken with the 4-meter Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo by Marc
Buie, Robert Millis, and Lawrence Wasserman of Lowell Observatory.
However, several subsequent observations, made with a variety of
telescopes over the past 16 months, coupled with numerical orbit
integrations of the trajectory of the asteroid, were required to prove
that 2001 QR322 is indeed a Neptune Trojan. The object is estimated to
be approximately 140 miles (230 km) in diameter and, like Neptune,
requires about 166 years to complete each circuit of its orbit.
"Neptunian Trojans were long suspected to exist and it is gratifying to
finally know that they do," says team member Eugene Chiang of the
University of California at Berkeley. "The orbit of 2001 QR322 is
remarkably stable; projections of its trajectory into the future reveal
that it can co-orbit with Neptune for at least billions of years. It is
likely that 2001 QR322 is a dynamically pristine object whose orbital
eccentricity and inclination have been largely unaltered by processes
that afflicted the majority of bodies in the outer solar system."
Kitt Peak and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory are part of the
National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO), which is operated by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc.,
under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.
The survey team's research is supported in part by the NASA Planetary
Astronomy Program through grants to Lowell Observatory, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Hawaii; by
the National Science Foundation through a grant to the University of
California at Berkeley; by the Space Telescope Science Institute through
grants to University of Pennsylvania and by the University of California
at Berkeley; by the University of California at Berkeley through a
Faculty Research Award; and by the Friends of Lowell Observatory.
For more information about the Deep Ecliptic Survey see
http://www.lowell.edu/Research/DES/
Media Contact:
Kristi Phillips, Manager of Media Relations and Public Affairs
Lowell Observatory
1400 W. Mars Hill Road
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(928) 774-3358 x232; phillips@xxxxxxxxxx
Note: Marc Buie, Robert Millis, and Larry Wasserman can be reached at
(928) 774-3358 or via email at buie@xxxxxxxxxx, rlm@xxxxxxxxxx, and
lhw@xxxxxxxxxxx Eugene Chiang can be reached at (510) 642-2131 or via
email at echiang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Figure available at http://www.lowell.edu/media.
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