Detection of inner Solar System Trojan Asteroids by Gaia

TL;DR

This paper discusses simulations predicting Gaia's capability to detect Trojan asteroids in Earth's and Mars' orbits, expanding the potential for discovering Solar System objects difficult to observe from Earth.

Contribution

It provides the first simulation-based assessment of Gaia's ability to detect Trojan asteroids in the inner Solar System.

Findings

Gaia can detect Trojan asteroids at Solar elongations as low as 45 degrees.

Simulations show Gaia will discover thousands of Solar System objects.

Detection of Earth and Mars Trojan asteroids is feasible with Gaia.

Abstract

The Gaia satellite, planned for launch by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2013, is the next generation astrometry mission following Hipparcos. While mapping the whole sky, the Gaia space mission is expected to discover thousands of Solar System Objects. These will include Near-Earth Asteroids and objects at Solar elongations as low as 45 degrees, which are difficult to observe with ground-based telescopes. We present the results of simulations for the detection of Trojan asteroids in the orbits of Earth and Mars by Gaia.