The Hungaria region as a possible source of Trojans and satellites in the inner Solar system
- Author(s)
- Mattia Galiazzo, Richard Schwarz
- 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.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Astrophysics
- Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Volume
- 445
- Pages
- 3999 - 4007
- No. of pages
- 9
- ISSN
- 0035-8711
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2016
- Publication date
- 12-2014
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103003 Astronomy, 103004 Astrophysics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics, Space and Planetary Science
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/the-hungaria-region-as-a-possible-source-of-trojans-and-satellites-in-the-inner-solar-system(0389e027-21b1-4127-bb03-1011e1bf0d11).html