[meteorite-list] Earth Trojan asteroids

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jun 23 19:20:56 2005
Message-ID: <BE076B8CCE4CFE4D9598230D888B2ADF07C7CF_at_0005-its-exs01.mail.saic.com>

Hi Darren, Sterling and List,

Sterling pondered about Earth Trojans:

> Makes me wonder if somebody has ever tracked the orbital points
> 60 degrees ahead and behind the Earth... Wouldn't it be great
> to have Trojans of our own?

Certainly astronomers have tried, but small objects at L4 and L5
would be hard to see due to a combination of range (150 million
km), poorer phase angle, and a maximum sky elevation of perhaps 45
degrees at astronomical twilight -- lower when the sky is darker.
It would be an interesting exercise to compute the maximum size
an Earth Trojan could be and still have managed to go undetected.

--Rob
Received on Thu 23 Jun 2005 07:20:04 PM PDT