Observation of Two New L4 Neptune Trojans in the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Fields

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of two new Neptune Trojans in the L4 region using the Dark Energy Survey data, expanding knowledge of Neptune's co-orbital objects and their orbital characteristics.

Contribution

The discovery of two new Neptune Trojans with detailed analysis of their orbits and stability, utilizing data from the Dark Energy Survey.

Findings

Two new Neptune Trojans discovered in high-inclination orbits.

One Trojan has the most eccentric orbit among known stable Neptune Trojans.

The objects are confirmed to be in long-term stable orbits.

Abstract

We report the discovery of the eighth and ninth known Trojans in stable orbits around Neptune's leading Lagrange point, L4. The objects 2014 QO$_{441}$ and 2014 QP$_{441}$ were detected in data obtained during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 observing seasons by the Dark Energy Survey, using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the 4-meter Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Both are in high-inclination orbits (18.8$^{\circ}$ and 19.4$^{\circ}$ respectively). With an eccentricity of 0.104, 2014 QO$_{441}$ has the most eccentric orbit of the eleven known stable Neptune Trojans. Here we describe the search procedure and investigate the objects' long-term dynamical stability and physical properties.