Earth Co-orbital Asteroid 2002 AA29
Asteroid 2002 AA29 is one of three known examples of horseshoe orbit behaviour. The asteroid is co-orbital with Earth; the only substantial difference in orbital parameters being a 10.7 degree inclination. From time to time, 2002 AA29 leaves the horseshoe behaviour and enters a quasi-satellite relationship with Earth (Connors et al. [1]), the next instance being approximately 2580 AD. Using the SWIFT simulation suite running on the Swinburne supercomputer this project investigates the orbital behaviour of 2002 AA29, in particular the quasi-satellite phase. The investigations confirm the presence of quasi-satellite behaviour and discount the possibility of resonances with Jupiter causing the transition.
Earth Co-orbital Asteroid 2002 AA29 Project PDF
This is a large, one page poster summarising the HET617 Project.
Earth Co-orbital Asteroid 2002 AA29 Poster PDF
1 response so far ↓
1 John Ferreirinho // Apr 4, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Very interesting, thanks. I’m still having trouble visualzing what’s going in those horsehoe orbits, but I expect looking at some detailed animations would clarify this.
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