An optimal earth Trojan asteroid search strategy

Abstract

Trojan asteroids are minor planets that share the orbit of a planet about the Sun and librate around the L4 or L5 Lagrangian points of stability. They are important solar-system fossils because they carry information on early Solar system formation, when collisions between bodies were more frequent. Discovery and study of terrestrial planet Trojans will help constrain models for the distribution of bodies and interactions in the inner Solar system. Since the discovery of the first outer planet Trojan in 1906, several thousand Jupiter Trojans have been found. Of the terrestrial planets, there are four known Mars Trojans, and one Earth Trojan has been recently discovered. We present a new model that constrains optimal search areas, and imaging cadences for narrow and wide-field survey telescopes including the Gaia satellite for the most efficient use of telescope time to maximize the probability of detecting additional Earth Trojans. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS.