CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun.

Detailed explanation-2: -Although Trojan asteroids have been discovered for Mars (4 to date, 1 at L4 and 3 at L5) and Neptune (8 Trojans, 6 at L4 and 2 at L5) and even Earth (1 Trojan at L4), the term ‘Trojan asteroid’ generally refers to the asteroids accompanying Jupiter.

Detailed explanation-3: -Only two Earth trojans have so far been discovered. The name “trojan” was first used in 1906 for the Jupiter trojans, the asteroids that were observed near the Lagrangian points of Jupiter’s orbit.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Trojan asteroids move in the same orbit as Jupiter, though they keep either well ahead of or well behind the Giant Planet and are in no danger of being engulfed. Mars has several Trojans, and Neptune one.

Detailed explanation-5: -On the long term scale this planet also destabi-lizes the whole region around the Saturnian libration points. If we find in the future Trojans of Saturn, these Trojans could only be captured asteroids, in orbits in the 1:1 MMR for a short time. However, up to the present day, no Trojans of Saturn have been found.