Observation of Two New L4 Neptune Trojans in the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Fields

Abstract

We report the discovery of the eighth and ninth known Trojans in stable orbits around Neptune's leading Lagrange point, L4. The objects 2014 QO${}_{441}$ and 2014 QP${}_{441}$ were detected in data obtained during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 observing seasons by the Dark Energy Survey, using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the 4-meter Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Both are in high-inclination orbits (18.8${}^{\circ }$ and 19.4${}^{\circ }$ respectively). With an eccentricity of 0.104, 2014 QO${}_{441}$ has the most eccentric orbit of the eleven known stable Neptune Trojans. Here we describe the search procedure and investigate the objects' long-term dynamical stability and physical properties.

arXiv comment11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to AJ

References in corpus (20)

• The generalised Lomb-Scargle periodogram. A new formalism for the floating-mean and Keplerian periodograms
• The u'g'r'i'z' Standard Star Network
• The Fourth US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC4)
• The Dark Energy Camera
• SNANA: A Public Software Package for Supernova Analysis
• The Blanco Cosmology Survey: Data Acquisition, Processing, Calibration, Quality Diagnostics and Data Release
• Supernova Simulations and Strategies For the Dark Energy Survey
• Population and Size Distribution of Small Jovian Trojan Asteroids
• The Difference Imaging Pipeline for the Transient Search in the Dark Energy Survey
• Orbit Fitting and Uncertainties for Kuiper Belt Objects
• Automated Transient Identification in the Dark Energy Survey
• Resonance Occupation in the Kuiper Belt: Case Examples of the 5:2 and Trojan Resonances
• Cross Sections for Planetary Systems Interacting with Passing Stars and Binaries
• Neptune Trojans as a Testbed for Planet Formation
• On the origin of the Trojan asteroids: Effects of Jupiter's mass accretion and radial migration
• Survival of Trojan-Type Companions of Neptune During Primordial Planet Migration
• The differing magnitude distributions of the two Jupiter Trojan color populations
• The Intrinsic Neptune Trojan Orbit Distribution: Implications for the Primordial Disk and Planet Migration
• 2011 HM102: Discovery of a High-Inclination L5 Neptune Trojan in the Search for a post-Pluto New Horizons Target
• Trailing (L5) Neptune Trojans: 2004 KV18 and 2008 LC18

Cited by in corpus (15)

• The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy - an overview
• The Difference Imaging Pipeline for the Transient Search in the Dark Energy Survey
• Asteroid (469219) 2016 HO3, the smallest and closest Earth quasi-satellite
• A search of the full six years of the Dark Energy Survey for outer Solar System objects
• Discovery and Dynamical Analysis of an Extreme Trans-Neptunian Object with a High Orbital Inclination
• Trans-Neptunian objects found in the first four years of the Dark Energy Survey
• Discovery and Physical Characterization of a Large Scattered Disk Object at 92 AU
• Dynamical Classification of Trans-Neptunian Objects Detected by the Dark Energy Survey
• Evaluating the Dynamical Stability of Outer Solar System Objects in the Presence of Planet Nine
• Dynamical Analysis of Three Distant Trans-Neptunian Objects with Similar Orbits
• The Pan-STARRS 1 Discoveries of five new Neptune Trojans
• OSSOS: The Eccentricity and Inclination Distributions of the Stable Neptunian Trojans
• Machine Learning for Searching the Dark Energy Survey for Trans-Neptunian Objects
• Dozens of virtual impactor orbits eliminated by the EURONEAR VIMP DECam data mining project
• Evidence for Color Dichotomy in the Primordial Neptunian Trojan Population