September 11, 2018

Artist's concept of Patroclus and Menoetius (Image courtesy W.M. Keck Observatory/Lynette Cook)

An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” describes a research on the migration of the solar system’s gaseous planets. A team of scientists studied two asteroids called Patroclus and Menoetius that are out of the ordinary as they form a pair of Jupiter trojans, which means that they orbit at a point of equilibrium of the Sun-Jupiter system. Their conclusion is that their existence is evidence of the shifting of the gaseous planets’ orbits.