Trojan asteroids and co-orbital dust ring of Venus

TL;DR

This study systematically investigates the orbital stability of Venus Trojans considering relativistic and Yarkovsky effects, concluding they are unlikely to be long-term stable and that Venus's dust ring is probably caused by transient captures rather than Trojans.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive numerical analysis of Venus Trojan stability including effects previously neglected, clarifying their instability and the origin of Venus's dust ring.

Findings

Venus Trojans are generally unstable over the Solar system age.

Yarkovsky effect significantly destabilizes Venus Trojan orbits.

Venus's dust ring likely results from transient dust captures, not stable Trojans.

Abstract

The long-standing co-orbital asteroids have been thought to be the possible source of zodiacal dust ring around the orbit of Venus, but inconsistent conclusions on the orbital stability thus existence of Venus Trojans are found in literature. We present in this paper a systematic survey of the orbital stability of Venus Trojans, taking into account the dynamical influences from the general relativity and the Yarkovsky effect. The orbits of thousands of fictitious Venus Trojans are numerically simulated. Using the method of frequency analysis, their orbital stabilities and the dynamical mechanisms behind are described in detail. The influences of general relativity and of Yarkovsky effect, which were either neglected or oversimplified previously, are investigated by long-term numerical simulations. The stability maps on the $(a_0,i_0)$ plane and $(a_0,e_0)$ plane are depicted, and the most stable Venus Trojans are found to occupy the low-inclination horseshoe orbits with low eccentricities. The resonances that carve the fine structures in the stability map are determined. The general relativity decreases the stability of orbits by little but the Yarkovsky effect may drive nearly all Venus Trojans out of the Trojan region in a relatively short time. The Venus Trojans have poor orbital stability and cannot survive the age of the Solar system. The zodiacal dust ring found around the orbit of Venus is more likely a sporadic phenomenon, as the result of temporarily capture into the 1:1 mean motion resonance of dust particles produced probably from passing comets or asteroids, but not Venus Trojans.