On the Stability Regions of the Trojan Asteroids

Abstract

The orbits of fictitious bodies around Jupiter’s stable equilibrium points L₄ and L₅ were integrated for a fine grid of initial conditions up to 100 million years. We checked the validity of three different dynamical models, namely the spatial, restricted three body problem, a model with Sun, Jupiter and Saturn and also the dynamical model with the Outer Solar System (Jupiter to Neptune). We determined the chaoticity of an orbit with the aid of the Lyapunov Characteristic Exponents (=LCE) and used also a method where the maximum eccentricity of an orbit achieved during the dynamical evolution was examined. The goal of this investigation was to determine the size of the regions of motion around the equilibrium points of Jupiter and to find out the dependance on the inclination of the Trojan’s orbit. Whereas for small inclinations (up to i=20°) the stable regions are almost equally large, for moderate inclinations the size shrinks quite rapidly and disappears completely for i>60^°. Additionally, we found a difference in the dynamics of orbits around L₄ which – according to the LCE – seem to be more stable than the ones around L₅.