Friday, March 29

Astronomers detect the second Trojan asteroid from Earth | Digital Trends Spanish


An international team of astronomers detected the second Trojan asteroid from Earth, a class of rocks that move in the same orbit as our planet, a particularity that makes it difficult to detect.

The object was named 2020 XL5 and was detected precisely in 2020 by astronomers from the European Space Agency, the Lowell Discovery in Arizona and the NOIRLab of the National Science Foundation in Chile.

in an article published in the magazine Nature, the experts linked to the discovery of the second Trojan asteroid describe that the rock is almost 1.18 kilometers wide (about 0.73 miles). In perspective, the rock is almost three times the size of the first Trojan, discovered in 2010 under the name TK7.

The experts detailed that the asteroid was detected in the L4 position of the Lagrange points, a set of five regions in which it can remain stable or semi-stable and at the same distance from an object.

The Lagrange points vary depending on the objects that are observed, for example, the Earth and the Sun.

In each of the five regions of the Lagrange points, the gravitational force of both objects cancels, allowing the static or semi-static position.

The specialists stressed that the detection of the second Trojan asteroid from Earth will allow a better study of the properties of these objects.

“It can improve our understanding of the dynamics of these objects,” the experts said.

They added that although the origin of 2020 XL5 is unknown, the rock could well come from the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

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