What is the defining property of the Trojan asteroids?
A)Their orbital periods are exactly one year, like ours.
B)They have orbits that cross the orbit of Earth, but not that of Venus.
C)They have orbits at the distance of Jupiter and 60 degrees ahead of or behind it.
D)They have orbits between Saturn and Uranus.
E)Like Pluto, they are in a 3:2 resonance with Neptune.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The defining property of the Trojan asteroids is that they have orbits at the distance of Jupiter and 60 degrees ahead of or behind it. This means that they occupy stable gravitationally trapped orbits at the Lagrangian points L4 and L5, which are 60 degrees ahead of and behind Jupiter in its orbit, respectively. The defining property of the Trojan asteroids is that they have orbits at the distance of Jupiter and 60 degrees ahead of or behind it. This means that they share Jupiter's orbit, but are located at stable Lagrange points, which are areas where the gravitational forces of two large bodies are balanced by the centrifugal force of a smaller body, allowing for stable orbits.

What Is the Defining Property of the Trojan Asteroids