Dear followers,
Scientists has found that the 70km asteroid, called Crantor and two other smaller asteroids, called respectively 2010 EU65 and 2011 QF99 are orbiting Uranus.
In 2006, Uruguayan astronomer Tabaré Gallardo suggested the asteroids Crantor and 2000 SN331 complete their orbits of the Sun in the same time period as Uranus, i.e., an orbit around 84 Earth years.
Credits: artistic view of Uranus with asteroid Crantor SINC
Today, two astrophysicists from the Complutense University of Madrid have confirmed that Crantor, a large asteroid with a diameter of 70 km has an orbit similar to that of Uranus and takes the same amount of time to orbit the Sun. Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that this and a further two objects of the group of the Centaurs are co-orbital with Uranus.
Credits: Lawrence Sromovky from University of Winsconsin-Madison, Keck Observatory
References:
Carlos de la Fuente Marcos y Raúl de la Fuente Marcos. “Crantor, a short-lived horseshoe companion to Uranus”. Astronomy & Astrophysics 551: A114, March 2013. DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201220646
Carlos de la Fuente Marcos y Raúl de la Fuente Marcos. “Three new stable L5 Mars Trojans”. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters 432: 31-35, May 2013. DOI:10.1093/mnrasl/slt028
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