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Originally published in Science Express on 15 June 2006
Science 28 July 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5786, pp. 511 - 514
DOI: 10.1126/science.1127173
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Reports

A Thick Cloud of Neptune Trojans and Their Colors

Scott S. Sheppard1* and Chadwick A. Trujillo2

The dynamical and physical properties of asteroids offer one of the few constraints on the formation, evolution, and migration of the giant planets. Trojan asteroids share a planet's semimajor axis but lead or follow it by about 60° near the two triangular Lagrangian points of gravitational equilibrium. Here we report the discovery of a high-inclination Neptune Trojan, 2005 TN53. This discovery demonstrates that the Neptune Trojan population occupies a thick disk, which is indicative of "freeze-in" capture instead of in situ or collisional formation. The Neptune Trojans appear to have a population that is several times larger than the Jupiter Trojans. Our color measurements show that Neptune Trojans have statistically indistinguishable slightly red colors, which suggests that they had a common formation and evolutionary history and are distinct from the classical Kuiper Belt objects.

1 Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
2 Gemini Observatory, 670 North A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sheppard{at}dtm.ciw.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)