"Dancing with Neptune" - this is the first body of this type to be discovered near Neptune
Astronomers have discovered an object orbiting the Sun in an orbit similar to that of Neptune. This is a type of asteroid known as a "Trojan asteroid". There are several clusters of such bodies that share an orbit with Jupiter. The scientists claim that this object has been orbiting the Sun in Neptune's orbit for billions of years.
The object, known as 2001 QR322, is the first to be found in association with Neptune. "Scientists have long expected to find Neptunian Trojans," says American team member Eugene Chang of the University of California, Berkeley. The first Trojan object was discovered in 1906 and so far 1,600 such objects have been discovered in Jupiter's orbit. So far no such objects have been discovered in the orbits of other large planets. The body was discovered during a survey of the outer solar system used in the USA and Chile funded by NASA.
Its diameter is estimated at 230 km and, like Neptune, its orbit around the sun takes 166 years. Researchers first found it on August 21, 2001 in a digital image taken with a 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo. However, it took more than a year of observations and orbit calculations to confirm that QR322 2001 is a Neptunian Trojan.
Astronomer Eugene Ching said: The orbit of 2001 QR322 is stable and he means it will be able to co-orbit the Sun in a common orbit with Neptune for billions of years.
Apparently 2001 QR322 was an asteroid with an extremely elliptical orbit and its orbit changed as a result of the influence of the large bodies in the outer solar system.
