Trojan Asteroid spotted near Jupiter’s Orbit for the first time

Scientists have discovered a rare kind of space object which is described as something between an asteroid and a comet. The object has been called an active asteroid.

The celestial body was first noticed by the astronomers in June 2019 when the University of Hawaii’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) detected a faint new signal that appeared to be an asteroid in the Trojan group.

The newly discovered asteroid is named 2019 LD2.

2019 LD2 has an orbit like an asteroid but the tail of a comet.

The specialty of 2019 LD2 special is that the active asteroid shares Jupiter’s orbit in an asteroid swarm known as the Jupiter Trojans.

This is the first Jupiter Trojan that the astronomers have come across.

These asteroids follow the same orbit like that of a planet. But. it remains 60 degrees ahead of or behind along the orbit.

The Jupiter Trojan asteroids orbit the Sun in two huge swarms, one swarm orbiting ahead of the planet, where 2019 LD2 is present, and the other swarm orbiting behind it

It is suspected that the Trojan asteroids have been captured into these orbits by Jupiter’s strong gravity.

2019 LD2 is a first-of-its-kind active asteroid because most Jupiter Trojans were captured billions of years ago.

Other planets on the Solar system like Earth, Neptune, and Jupiter have more than one Trojan asteroids.