An optimal Mars Trojan asteroid search strategy
arXiv:1204.6360 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21204.x
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. Although only three Mars Trojans have been discovered, models suggest that at least ten times this number should exist with diameters >= 1 km. We derive a model that constrains optimal sky search areas and present a strategy for the most efficient use of telescope survey time that maximizes the probability of detecting Mars Trojans. We show that the Gaia space mission could detect any Mars Trojans larger than 1 km in diameter, provided the relative motion perpendicular to Gaia's CCD array is less than 0.40 arcsec per second.
6 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1111.1127
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Cited by in corpus (8)
- Three new stable L5 Mars Trojans
- Orbital clustering of Martian Trojans: An asteroid family in the inner solar system?
- The Zadko Telescope: Exploring the transient Universe
- Using Mars co-orbitals to estimate the importance of rotation-induced YORP break-up events in Earth co-orbital space
- Is the Eureka cluster a collisional family of Mars Trojan asteroids?
- Predictions for the Detection of Earth and Mars Trojan Asteroids by the Gaia satellite
- Australian participation in the Gaia Follow-Up Network for Solar System Objects
- Detection of inner Solar System Trojan Asteroids by Gaia