The Hungaria region as a possible source of Trojans and satellites in the inner Solar system
Abstract
The Hungaria family (the closest region of the Main Belt to Mars) is an important source of planet-crossing asteroids and even impactors of terrestrial planets. We present the possibility of asteroids coming from the Hungaria family being captured into co-orbital motion with the terrestrial planets in the inner Solar system. Therefore, we have carried out long-term numerical integrations (up to 100 Myr) to analyse migrations from their original location - the Hungaria family region - into the inner Solar system. During the integration time, we observed whether or not the Hungarias are captured into co-orbital motion with the terrestrial planets. Our results show that 5.5 per cent of 200 Hungarias, selected as a sample of the whole group, escape from the Hungaria region and the probability of becoming co-orbital objects (Trojans, satellites or horseshoes) turns out to be ∼3.3 per cent: 1.8 per cent for Mars and 1.5 per cent for Earth. In addition, we distinguished the classes of co-orbital motion into which the asteroids are captured and how long they stay there in stable motion. Most of the escaped Hungarias become quasi-satellites and the ones captured as Trojans favour the L5 Lagrangian point. This work highlights the fact that the Hungaria region is a source of Mars and also Earth co-orbital objects.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- December 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stu2016
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1612.00275
- Bibcode:
- 2014MNRAS.445.3999G
- Keywords:
-
- methods: numerical;
- celestial mechanics;
- minor planets;
- asteroids: general;
- asteroids: individual: Hungaria family;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 445, 3999, 2014