Planets and Moons  ID: 12504

Searching for Earth's Trojan Asteroids

Released on February 9, 2017
Trojan asteroids accompany several of our solar system's planets, leading or trailing the planet in its orbit at the L4 and L5 Lagrange points. Detecting our own planet's Trojan asteroids from Earth is difficult because they appear close to the sun from our perspective. In mid-February 2017, NASA's OSIRS-REx mission will search for these elusive objects when the spacecraft passes by Earth's L4 Lagrange point, en route to asteroid Bennu in 2018.

Learn more about OSIRIS-REx's search for Earth Trojans.
Visit OSIRIS-REx at NASA and the University of Arizona.
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In mid-February 2017, NASA's OSIRS-REx mission will search Earth's L4 Lagrange point for Trojan asteroids - small bodies that share Earth's orbit, and which may have been trapped there during the formation of our planet. Jim Green, the Director of Planetary Science at NASA, discusses OSIRIS-REx and its search for Earth's Trojan asteroids.

Complete transcript available.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Music: "Meadows" by Daniel Pemberton, Atmosphere Music Ltd/Killer Tracks Music

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Diagram of the OSIRIS-REx search for Trojan asteroids at L4, oblique perspective.
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Diagram of the five Lagrange points around Earth and its orbit.
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Diagram of Earth's orbit and L4, where OSIRIS-REx will search for Trojan asteroids.
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Infographic explaining Trojan asteroids
 

Source Material

A Web Around Asteroid Bennu – Visualizations
OSIRIS-REx orbits, maneuvers, and mapping
OSIRIS-REx Mission Design: Sample Acquisition Campaign
OSIRIS-REx Cruise Animation
Bennu's Journey Animation Resource Page
Bennu's Journey

For More Information

NASA.gov

Credits

James Green (NASA/HQ): Interviewee
Dan Gallagher (USRA): Producer
Dan Gallagher (USRA): Editor
Rob Andreoli (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.): Videographer
John Caldwell (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.): Production Assistant
Walt Feimer (HTSI): Lead Animator
Michael Lentz (USRA): Animator
Lisa Poje (USRA): Animator
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (USRA): Animator
Kel Elkins (USRA): Data Visualizer
Heather Roper (The University of Arizona): Graphic Designer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12504

Mission:
OSIRIS-REX

This item is part of this series:
Narrated Movies

Keywords:
SVS >> Asteroid
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Lagrange Points
SVS >> OSIRIS-REx
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons
SVS >> Bennu
SVS >> Trojans
SVS >> Trojan Asteroid