[meteorite-list] Earth Trojan asteroids

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jun 23 20:32:52 2005
Message-ID: <195.41cd1361.2fecae8c_at_aol.com>

Hola Rob,

Wouldn't that be <= 2/3's (gibbous) phase = about 66% illumination, and a
maximum average sky angle of a comfortable,high 60 degrees max observed angle
(+/- the "oscillation") ... checking they're equilateral triangles, though
intuition might be wrong?
Saludos, Doug

En un mensaje con fecha 06/23/2005 6:21:15 PM Mexico Daylight Time,
ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com escribe:
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 08:32:12 PM PDT