Cis-Neptunian object

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A cis-Neptunian object is, literally, any astronomical body found within the orbit of Neptune.[1] However, the term is typically used for those distant minor planets other than trans-Neptunian objects: that is, all sub-planetary bodies orbiting the Sun at or within the distance of Neptune, but outside the orbit of Jupiter.[citation needed] This includes the icy minor planets known as centaurs[2] and the Neptune trojans.[3][lower-alpha 1]

Centaurs orbit the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune, often crossing the orbits of the large gas giants. There is an emerging sense[2] that the centaurs may simply be objects similar to scattered-disc objects that were knocked inwards from the Kuiper belt rather than outwards, making them cis-Neptunian rather than trans-Neptunian scattered-disc objects.

Neptune trojans, named by analogy to the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, are a stable reservoir of small bodies sharing Neptune's orbit.[4] As of August 2012, all known Neptune trojans except two lie in an elongated region around the L4 Lagrangian point 60° ahead of Neptune.

Notes

References

  1. Remo, John L. (2007). Classifying Solid Planetary Bodies. New trends in astrodynamics and applications III. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 886, pp. 284-302.
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