Earth Trojan Asteroids: A Study in Support of Observational Searches
Earth Trojan Asteroids: A Study in Support of Observational Searches
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DOI：
10.1006/icar.2000.6339
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发表时间：
1999-12
期刊：
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
P. Wiegert;K. Innanen;S. Mikkola
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
P. Wiegert;K. Innanen;S. Mikkola
摘要对在地球三角形拉格朗日点附近运行的小行星进行观测搜索面临着独特的障碍。这样的小行星群将占据天空中很大的投影面积（可能有数百平方度），并且相对于太阳的位置并不有利。在这里，我们研究地球“特洛伊人”的合成种群的属性，以帮助优化对它们的观测搜索。我们发现，最高的天空投影数密度并不位于L4和L5点本身的位置，而是更接近太阳几度。此外，在L4和L5点附近轨道上的小行星，由于相位效应，当它们的黄道经度和太阳经度之间的差异增加时，通常会变亮，但它们在天空中的数量密度同时迅速下降福尔斯。
Abstract Observational searches for asteroids orbiting near Earth's triangular Lagrange points face unique obstacles. A population of such asteroids would occupy a large projected area on the sky (possibly hundreds of square degrees) and is not favorably placed with respect to the Sun. Here we examine the properties of synthetic populations of Earth “Trojans” in order to aid in the optimization of observational searches for them. We find that the highest on-sky projected number densities are not located at the positions of the L 4 and L 5 points themselves, but rather a few degrees closer to the Sun. Also, asteroids on orbits about the L 4 and L 5 points typically brighten as the difference between their ecliptic longitude and that of the Sun increases owing to phase effects, but their number density on the sky concurrently falls rapidly.