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A Uranian Trojan and the frequency of temporary giant-planet co-orbitals

Authors :
Alexandersen, Mike
Gladman, Brett
Greenstreet, Sarah
Kavelaars, JJ
Petit, Jean-Marc
Gwyn, Stephen
Source :
Science (2013) Vol. 341 no. 6149 pp. 994-997
Publication Year :
2013

Abstract

Trojan objects share a planet's orbit, never straying far from the triangular Lagrangian points, 60 degrees ahead of (L4) or behind (L5) the planet. We report the detection of a Uranian Trojan; in our numerical integrations, 2011 QF99 oscillates around the Uranian L4 Lagrange point for >70 kyr and remains co-orbital for ~1 Myr before becoming a Centaur. We constructed a Centaur model, supplied from the transneptunian region, to estimate temporary co-orbital capture frequency and duration (to factor of two accuracy), finding that at any time 0.4% and 2.8% of the population will be Uranian and Neptunian co-orbitals, respectively. The co-orbital fraction (~2.4%) among Centaurs in the IAU Minor Planet Centre database is thus as expected under transneptunian supply.<br />Comment: 6 pages main text, 4 pages references, 3 pages of figures for main text. 16 pages of supplementary material including 4 figures

Details

Database :
arXiv
Journal :
Science (2013) Vol. 341 no. 6149 pp. 994-997
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsarx.1303.5774
Document Type :
Working Paper
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1238072