FAQ for uk.sci.astronomy

JRS: In article , dated Sat, 25 Dec
2004 08:41:14, seen in news:uk.sci.astronomy, Charles Gilman
posted :
The planetary bodies known generically as Trojans are actually in two
groups, one at the L4 point and one at the L5. By and large those at the L5
point are named after Trojan warriors and their allies defending Troy and
those at the L4 point after Greeks besieging it, but even this rule has some
early exceptions. The second and third discovered, Patroclus and Hector, are
the wrong way round, although as one seems to be binary and the other
bilobar (probably a former binary that has fused into one body) the anomaly
of the names does reflect some real distinctiveness!

"Dr John Stockton" wrote in message
...

If the primary:secondary mass ratio exceeds about 25, there are stable
regions including the "Trojan Points" L4 & L5. The original Trojan
asteroids, named after heroes in Homer's Iliad, are in the L5 position
of the Sun-Jupiter system.

Please put responses after trimmed quotes, as per standard etiquette and
newsgroup FAQ, A5.

Yes, there's further explanation on my Web site; no doubt if the present
material gets into the FAQ it will be accompanied by links to my site or
to better ones. But the present need is more to condense than to
expand.

--
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