Trojan asteroid XL5: Earth's new neighbour

The biggest and most popular question that astronomers have been trying to answer for decades now is whether earth is alone&nbsp;or does it have any neighbour around its path. Until recently, the answer to this was that the earth was pretty much alone. However, scientists have discovered a new neighbour for our home planet, a buddy trojan near earth (NEO) asteroid that has been orbiting the sun along the same path as the blue planet. Let us now take a closer look at earth’s new next door cosmic neighbour.&nbsp;



How was earth’s new neighbour discovered?&nbsp; Named as 2020 XL5, this brand-new neighbour of earth, was discovered by the 1 metre SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research) Telescope, set near the Cerro Pachon region in Chile by astrophysicists from two reputed space research institutes, University of Alicante and Institute of Cosmos Sciences (University of Barcelona). This kilometre wide trojan asteroid has been observed hovering around the sun alongside earth. In fact, this earth-like asteroid has been seen in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. This discovery is being regarded as the largest asteroid to have ever accompanied earth. The findings are yet to be published in the journal called ‘Nature Communication.’&nbsp;&nbsp;



Why is 2020 XL5 accompanying earth?&nbsp; Almost all the planets in the Solar System are known to be accompanied by trojan asteroids. However, 2020 XL5 is the second ever trojan asteroid found hovering near the earth (first one was called 2010 TK7). Trojan asteroids are objects sharing an orbit with the planets and clustered around any one of the gravitationally balanced areas along the orbit of the planets. They are scientifically known as the Langrage points which include five different points (L1 to L5). 2020 XL5 was found in L4 point, located at the 60 degrees in orbit ahead of the earth.&nbsp;



After the first round of discovery, astronomers employed another survey telescope called Pan-STARRS1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) in Hawaii, funded by the US Air Force. It was able to find that this brand new trojan asteroid is much larger than its predecessor, 2010 TK7. In fact, 2020 XL5 has been observed to be three times wider than the first trojan asteroid and is estimated to be 1.2 kilometres in diameter and less than 400 metres distant from the earth’s orbit. As per the data received from the SOAR Telescope, the first ever photometric analysis of 2020 XL5 also reveals that it’s a C-type asteroid (dark, contains immense amounts of carbon, and is the most common kind of asteroid).&nbsp;



How long will 2020 XL5 accompany the earth?&nbsp; 2020 XL5 is likely to accompany the earth for at least next 4000 years after which it will be gravitationally disturbed and will eventually move away and wander around the space. However, as long as it accompanies earth, this trojan asteroid will remain stable in its orbit and will not collide with the earth under any circumstance.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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