Jupiter and the Asteroids

December 26, 2015 Comments (0)

Originally shared by Larry Phillips

Jupiter and the Asteroids

Most asteroids orbit peacefully between Mars and Jupiter. However, many asteroids have orbits that have been determined by Jupiter’s massive gravity.

The Trojans (green) share Jupiter’s orbit, and are always about 60 degrees ahead of, or behind, Jupiter. These are the Lagrangian points L4 and L5. At these points, the gravity of Jupiter and the Sun balance out, forming a sort of gravity island. L4 and L5 are stable, meaning that an asteroid that strays from the precise balance point will tend to return to that point.

The Hildas (red) are in a 3:2 resonance with Jupiter – they complete 3 orbits for every 2 orbits of Jupiter.

Their orbits are eccentric, and arranged so that when they overtake Jupiter, they are closest to the Sun (and therefore furthest from Jupiter). The helps to prevent Jupiter’s gravity from disrupting their orbits.

The effect is that Jupiter “herds” them around the Sun, while they stay in a roughly triangular shape.

Near Earth Asteroids (not shown) have orbits that bring them close to the Earth. Almost all of these have been tossed out of the asteroid belt because of gravity interactions with Jupiter. One such asteroid caused the dinosaurs to have a very bad day.

#physics #gravity #asteroid

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