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A Venus trojan is an asteroid that orbits the
A Venus trojan is an asteroid that orbits the Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
in the vicinity of Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
. Trojans travel in Venus-Sun Lagrangian points
In celestial mechanics, the Lagrange points (; also Lagrangian points or libration points) are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the influence of two massive orbiting bodies. Mathematically, this involves the solution of t ...
.; leading 60° or ; trailing 60°. is the only known trojan of Venus, and is located at Venus' Lagrangian point .
Such trojans have little gravitational effect on Venus, which means trojans in Venus’s Lagrange points could’ve been put there by gravitational scattering, stating that the other inner planets
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
(with little contribution from the outer planets
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
) gravitationally pulled asteroids into a proper trajectory towards Venus (this was as the planets were being pulled more towards their present day orbits).
Characteristics of Venusian trojans range from them being a few kilometers. According to a Minor Planet Center list, it doesn’t list , as it’s only passed 0.077 AU from Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
on 21 June 2016.
Exploration
The only known temporary trojan of Venus is , and orbits Venus in a tadpole orbit around Venus' Lagrangian point . The trojan was discovered in July 2013 by N. Primak, A. Schultz, T. Goggia and K. Chambers. The astronomers were observing for NASA’sPan-STARRS
The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1; obs. code: F51 and Pan-STARRS2 obs. code: F52) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US, consists of astronomical cameras, telescopes and a computing facility that is ...
project.
The asteroids characteristics were used for a simulation, where it was proven that it was a viable trojan of Venus, the first of its kind.
Just like most asteroids in our Solar system, it’s hypothesized that the asteroids surface is covered in metal-rich minerals: silicates and carbonates, although no information has been provided to support other minerals’ presence on the asteroid.
References
{{reflist Trojans (astronomy)