Saturday, August 14, 2010

"Dead Zone" Asteroid Found Following Neptune

Amplify’d from news.nationalgeographic.com


"Dead Zone" Asteroid Found Following Neptune

In a gravitational dead zone, so-called Trojan trails the gas giant.

This photograph of Neptune was reconstructed from two images taken by Voyager 2's narrow-angle camera, through the green and clear filters. The image shows three of the features that Voyager 2 has been photographing during recent weeks. At the north (top) is the Great Dark Spot, accompanied by bright, white clouds that undergo rapid changes in appearance. To the south of the Great Dark Spot is the bright feature that Voyager scientists have nicknamed
The gas giant planet Neptune (file image).

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL

Neptune's got company—a so-called Trojan asteroid caught in a gravitational "dead zone" caused by a cosmic tug-of-war between the gravitational fields of the gas giant planet and the sun.

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