Postdoctoral Fellow Scott Sheppard along with Chadwick Trujillo from the Gemini Observatory have discovered three new Trojan Asteroids sharing Neptune’s orbit. This discovery brings the total of known Neptune Trojans to four. Based on the new evidence, this group is more numerous than either the asteroids in the main belt or the Jupiter Trojans. They are also harder to observe due to the long distance from the sun. This distance requires astronomers to detect them using the world’s largest telescopes that are equipped with sensitive digital cameras.

“It is exciting to have quadrupled the known population of Neptune Trojans. In the process, we have learned a lot both about how these asteroids become locked into their stable orbits, as well as what they might be made of, which makes the discovery especially rewarding,” said Sheppard, lead author of the study. The study appears online in the June 15 issue of Science Express.