Bruce-7891 t1_jeg1tvy wrote on March 31, 2023 at 7:18 PM

Reply to comment by EndoExo in TIL: About Earth trojans. Two asteroids that share our orbit, leading us around the sun. by RevolutionaryAd94

This makes more sense. Doesn't the speed of the orbit and mass of the object have to be a certain ratio for it not to get sucked into the star or ejected into space? It would have to be a planet sized asteroid. The title is a little misleading.

EndoExo t1_jeg6a2v wrote on March 31, 2023 at 7:47 PM

They're not planet-sized. Wiki says one is about 300m and another 1.2km. Everything in an orbit is traveling the necessary speed for that orbit, otherwise it wouldn't be an orbit. In most cases, an object in the same orbit around the Sun as Earth would eventually be pulled into a different orbit by Earth's gravity, but these asteroids are moving around a Lagrange point where the gravity of the Earth and the Sun kinda cancel out for orbital purposes.