2001 QR$_{322}$ - an update on Neptune's first unstable Trojan companion

TL;DR

This paper updates the orbital analysis of Neptune's first unstable Trojan, 2001 QR$_{322}$, revealing its orbit remains on the boundary between stability and instability despite improved data, emphasizing the need for further observations.

Contribution

It provides an updated dynamical study of 2001 QR$_{322}$'s orbit, showing persistent uncertainty about its stability status despite better orbital data.

Findings

Orbit remains on the boundary between stability and instability.

Improved orbital data still cannot definitively classify the orbit.

Further observations are necessary for conclusive stability assessment.

Abstract

The Neptune Trojans are the most recent addition to the panoply of Solar system small body populations. The orbit of the first discovered member, 2001 QR$_{322}$, was investigated shortly after its discovery, based on early observations of the object, and it was found to be dynamically stable on timescales comparable to the age of the Solar system. As further observations were obtained of the object over the following years, the best-fit solution for its orbit changed. We therefore carried out a new study of 2001 QR$_{322}$'s orbit in 2010, finding that it lay on the boundary between dynamically stable and unstable regions in Neptune's Trojan cloud, and concluding that further observations were needed to determine the true stability of the object's orbit. Here we follow up on that earlier work, and present the preliminary results of a dynamical study using an updated fit to 2001 QR$_{322}$'s orbit. Despite the improved precision with which the orbit of 2001 QR$_{322}$ is known, we find that the best-fit solution remains balanced on a knife-edge, lying between the same regions of stability and instability noted in our earlier work. In the future, we intend to carry out new observations that should hopefully refine the orbit to an extent that its true nature can finally be disentangled.