A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of Saturn

Autores
Melita, Mario Daniel; Brunini, Adrián
Año de publicación
2001
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
The Lagrangian equilateral points of a planetary orbit are points of equilibrium that trail at 60°, ahead (L4) or behind (L5), the trajectory of a planet. Jupiter is the only major planet in our Solar system harbouring a known population of asteroids at those locations. Here we report the existence of orbits close to the Lagrangian points of Saturn, stable at time-scales comparable to the age of the Solar system. By scaling with respect to the Trojan population we have estimated the number of objects that would populate the regions, which gives a significant figure. Moreover, mutual physical collisions over the age of the Solar system would be very rare, so the evaporation rate of this swarm arising from mutual interactions would be very low. A population of asteroids not self-collisionally evolved after their formation stage would be the first to be observed in our planetary system. Our present estimations are based on the assumption that the capture efficiency at Saturn's equilateral points is comparable with the one corresponding to Jupiter, thus our figures may be taken as upper limits. In any case, observational constraints on their number would provide fundamental clues to our understanding of the history of the outer Solar system. If they existed, the surface properties and size distribution of those objects would represent unusually valuable fossil records of our early planetary system.
Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas
Materia
Ciencias Astronómicas
Celestial mechanics
Minor planets, asteroids
Planets and satellites: formation
Solar system: formation
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/82963

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network_name_str SEDICI (UNLP)
spelling A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of SaturnMelita, Mario DanielBrunini, AdriánCiencias AstronómicasCelestial mechanicsMinor planets, asteroidsPlanets and satellites: formationSolar system: formationThe Lagrangian equilateral points of a planetary orbit are points of equilibrium that trail at 60°, ahead (L4) or behind (L5), the trajectory of a planet. Jupiter is the only major planet in our Solar system harbouring a known population of asteroids at those locations. Here we report the existence of orbits close to the Lagrangian points of Saturn, stable at time-scales comparable to the age of the Solar system. By scaling with respect to the Trojan population we have estimated the number of objects that would populate the regions, which gives a significant figure. Moreover, mutual physical collisions over the age of the Solar system would be very rare, so the evaporation rate of this swarm arising from mutual interactions would be very low. A population of asteroids not self-collisionally evolved after their formation stage would be the first to be observed in our planetary system. Our present estimations are based on the assumption that the capture efficiency at Saturn's equilateral points is comparable with the one corresponding to Jupiter, thus our figures may be taken as upper limits. In any case, observational constraints on their number would provide fundamental clues to our understanding of the history of the outer Solar system. If they existed, the surface properties and size distribution of those objects would represent unusually valuable fossil records of our early planetary system.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas2001info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionArticulohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfL17-L21http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/82963enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/0035-8711info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04230.xinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T11:15:50Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/82963Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 11:15:50.952SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of Saturn
title A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of Saturn
spellingShingle A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of Saturn
Melita, Mario Daniel
Ciencias Astronómicas
Celestial mechanics
Minor planets, asteroids
Planets and satellites: formation
Solar system: formation
title_short A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of Saturn
title_full A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of Saturn
title_fullStr A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of Saturn
title_full_unstemmed A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of Saturn
title_sort A possible long-lived asteroid population at the equilateral Lagrangian points of Saturn
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Melita, Mario Daniel
Brunini, Adrián
author Melita, Mario Daniel
author_facet Melita, Mario Daniel
Brunini, Adrián
author_role author
author2 Brunini, Adrián
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Astronómicas
Celestial mechanics
Minor planets, asteroids
Planets and satellites: formation
Solar system: formation
topic Ciencias Astronómicas
Celestial mechanics
Minor planets, asteroids
Planets and satellites: formation
Solar system: formation
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv The Lagrangian equilateral points of a planetary orbit are points of equilibrium that trail at 60°, ahead (L4) or behind (L5), the trajectory of a planet. Jupiter is the only major planet in our Solar system harbouring a known population of asteroids at those locations. Here we report the existence of orbits close to the Lagrangian points of Saturn, stable at time-scales comparable to the age of the Solar system. By scaling with respect to the Trojan population we have estimated the number of objects that would populate the regions, which gives a significant figure. Moreover, mutual physical collisions over the age of the Solar system would be very rare, so the evaporation rate of this swarm arising from mutual interactions would be very low. A population of asteroids not self-collisionally evolved after their formation stage would be the first to be observed in our planetary system. Our present estimations are based on the assumption that the capture efficiency at Saturn's equilateral points is comparable with the one corresponding to Jupiter, thus our figures may be taken as upper limits. In any case, observational constraints on their number would provide fundamental clues to our understanding of the history of the outer Solar system. If they existed, the surface properties and size distribution of those objects would represent unusually valuable fossil records of our early planetary system.
Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas
description The Lagrangian equilateral points of a planetary orbit are points of equilibrium that trail at 60°, ahead (L4) or behind (L5), the trajectory of a planet. Jupiter is the only major planet in our Solar system harbouring a known population of asteroids at those locations. Here we report the existence of orbits close to the Lagrangian points of Saturn, stable at time-scales comparable to the age of the Solar system. By scaling with respect to the Trojan population we have estimated the number of objects that would populate the regions, which gives a significant figure. Moreover, mutual physical collisions over the age of the Solar system would be very rare, so the evaporation rate of this swarm arising from mutual interactions would be very low. A population of asteroids not self-collisionally evolved after their formation stage would be the first to be observed in our planetary system. Our present estimations are based on the assumption that the capture efficiency at Saturn's equilateral points is comparable with the one corresponding to Jupiter, thus our figures may be taken as upper limits. In any case, observational constraints on their number would provide fundamental clues to our understanding of the history of the outer Solar system. If they existed, the surface properties and size distribution of those objects would represent unusually valuable fossil records of our early planetary system.
publishDate 2001
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2001
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dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04230.x
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
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