A retrograde co-orbital asteroid of Jupiter - PubMed

Affiliations

• PMID: 28358083
• DOI: 10.1038/nature22029

A retrograde co-orbital asteroid of Jupiter

Paul Wiegert et al. Nature. 2017.

Abstract

Recent theoretical work in celestial mechanics has revealed that an asteroid may orbit stably in the same region as a planet, despite revolving around the Sun in the sense opposite to that of the planet itself. Asteroid 2015 BZ₅₀₉ was discovered in 2015, but with too much uncertainty in its measured orbit to establish whether it was such a retrograde co-orbital body. Here we report observations and analysis that demonstrates that asteroid 2015 BZ₅₀₉ is indeed a retrograde co-orbital asteroid of the planet Jupiter. We find that 2015 BZ₅₀₉ has long-term stability, having been in its current, resonant state for around a million years. This is long enough to preclude precise calculation of the time or mechanism of its injection to its present state, but it may be a Halley-family comet that entered the resonance through an interaction with Saturn. Retrograde co-orbital asteroids of Jupiter and other planets may be more common than previously expected.

Comment in

• Planetary science: Reckless orbiting in the Solar System.

  Morais H, Namouni F. Morais H, et al. Nature. 2017 Mar 29;543(7647):635-636. doi: 10.1038/543635a. Nature. 2017. PMID: 28358088 No abstract available.

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