TomK
Punatic
USA
4601 Posts
Posted - 09/20/2016 : 22:42:55
This is a discovery made by a telescope in Hawaii, but this time on Haleakala; Pan-STARRS. The Mauna Kea observatories will undoubtedly follow-up to measure the brightness of the objects at various wavelengths (i.e., measuring their colors) to determine their surface composition and help determine their age and whether they are relics of the original solar system or newcomers.
http://phys.org/news/2016-09-astronomers...ojans.html
The four older trojans are in a stable orbit in one of Neptune's Lagrangian points, which is where gravity from a planet and the sun balance out and objects feel few effects from gravity. The James Webb Space Telescope (Hubble's successor, for want of a better phrase), will be occupying such a point in the Earth-sun system.
Since the fifth trojan librates (an oscillation around a point), it suggests its orbit is still settling and therefore was captured more recently, so a comparison of its colors and those of the others will tell us much more. The expectation is it will show more processing by solar radiation, but if it was captured after orbiting at a much greater distance than Neptune, it might even be a more primordial part of the solar system.
WOW and LOL I don't see a single mention of water, let alone OCEANS !
Sounds more like the bird.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbA1fVAiNXo