Mars trojans were once a mini planet

[FourWheelDrift]

https://phys.org/news/2017-04-astronomers-orbit-ma...

"The planet Mars shares its orbit with a handful of small asteroids, the so-called Trojans. Now an international team of astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile have found that most of these objects share a common composition; they are likely the remains of a mini-planet that was destroyed by a collision long ago. The findings are reported in a paper to appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in April"

[Eric Mc]

There are at least two groups of Trojan asteroids. Are they saying both sets are from the same original body?

[Einion Yrth]

Trojans are located at L4 and/or L5, so there may be 0,1 or 2 sets. Just saying.

[Eric Mc]

I bet most planets haven't "cleared their neighbourhood" entirely. It just depends on how small the "neighbours" are as to whether you consider the "hood" to be cleared.

[FourWheelDrift]

Also Mars related, NASA have announced that the atmosphere of Mars contains electrically charged metal atoms.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2017/me...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL0...

[annodomini2]

ash73 said:

Does this mean Mars, like Pluto, is a dwarf planet because it hasn't cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit?

Jupiter hasn't cleared it's orbit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_trojan

[Einion Yrth]

annodomini2 said:

ash73 said:

Does this mean Mars, like Pluto, is a dwarf planet because it hasn't cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit?

Jupiter hasn't cleared it's orbit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_trojan

*shrug* It's a stupid redefinition that the IAU should be ashamed of, but it makes no practical difference in the end. Finance permitting we will return to Pluto, because it's interesting.