Asteroid found in gravitational 'dead zone' near Neptune

Thursday, August 12, 2010 - 15:28 in Astronomy & Space

There are places in space where the gravitational tug between a planet and the Sun balance out, allowing other smaller bodies to remain stable, called Lagrangian points. Trojan asteroids have been found in some of these stable spots near Jupiter and Neptune. Now astronomers have discovered the first Trojan asteroid in a difficult-to-detect stability region at Neptune -- the Lagrangian L5 point.

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