Queen's University Belfast students find Neptune's elusive Trojan asteroids
An international team led by researchers at Queen's University Belfast has made a discovery that has eluded astronomers for decades.
An international team led by researchers at Queen's University Belfast has made a discovery that has eluded astronomers for decades.
The short version
- Beginning in 1906, telescope observations revealed a population of asteroids leading and trailing Jupiter, which came to be known as the "Trojan" and "Greek" populations.
- Since then, astronomers have discovered similar "families" orbiting Saturn and Uranus, but not Neptune.
- Thanks to the Queen's-led team, the mystery of the missing Trojans has now been resolved.
What happened
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: An international team led by researchers at Queen's University Belfast has made a discovery that has eluded astronomers for decades.
Why it matters
As detailed in a paper they published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters , the team found these distant icy bodies by analyzing data from the Vera C.
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