Lunch talk on May. 24, 2021

Motion of Trojan asteroids in complex dynamic environments

Speaker:Lei Zhou (NJU)

Venue:Video Conference

Time:12:30 PM, Monday, May. 24, 2021

Abstract:

Trojan asteroids are a set of celestial bodies sharing the orbit with their parent planet. These objects reside around two triangular Lagrange equilibrium points L4 and L5 with their orbits locked in the 1:1 mean motion resonance (MMR) with the parent planet, forming two swarms leading and trailing the planet by 60 deg, respectively. This topic is of special interest not only because a Trojan may exhibit complicated orbital behavior, but also because the existence and properties of Trojans are the touchstone by which the viability of the scenarios proposed for the early evolution of our solar system can be checked. We systematically and comprehensively explore the dynamical stability and various resonance mechanisms of the Trojan regions, and obtain the stability, the existence of primordial bodies, the possible formation mechanism and origin of Trojans for several planets. By comparing the cases of multiple planets, we can better understand and infer the dynamical environment in the early stage of the solar system.

Report PPT:SWIFAR_Lei Zhou.pdf