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In February 1906, the German astronomer [Max Wolf]? discovered an asteroid at the L4 Lagrangian point of the Sun-Jupiter system, and named it Achilles, one of the heroes of Homer's Iliad. The oddity of its orbit was realized within a few months, and before long, many other asteroids were discovered at this point (and the other triangular Lagrange point of the Sun-Jupiter system). |
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In February 1906, the German astronomer [Max Wolf]? discovered an asteroid at the L4 Lagrangian point of the Sun-Jupiter system, and named it Achilles, one of the heroes of Homer's Iliad. The oddity of its orbit was realized within a few months, and before long, many other asteroids were discovered at this point (and the other triangular Lagrange point of the Sun-Jupiter system). |
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Following Wolf's lead these asteroids were given names associated with the Iliad -- in fact, those in the L4 point are named for Greek heroes of the Iliad, and those at the L5 point are named for the heroes of Troy (and are subsequently sometimes called Patroclean asteroids after the most prominent of those). As the Iliad deals with the events of the Trojan War, the asteroids came to be collectively known as Trojan asteroids. Over time, this term has come to be more generally applied to any planetoidal body at the triangular Lagrangian point of any two bodies -- examples are known to exist in the Sun-Saturn and Sun-Mars systems, among others -- but strictly speaking it applies only to those in the L4 and L5 points of the Sun-Jupiter combination. |
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Following Wolf's lead these asteroids were given names associated with the Iliad -- in fact, those in the L4 point are named for Greek heroes of the Iliad, and those at the L5 point are named for the heroes of Troy. Confusingly, the latter group are sometimes called Patroclean asteroids after the most prominent of those, even though Patrocles? (the hero) was on the Greek side. However, Patrocles (the asteroid) was the first discovered asteroid at the L5 point, and was named before the Greece/Troy rule was devised. As the Iliad deals with the events of the Trojan War, the asteroids came to be collectively known as Trojan asteroids. Over time, this term has come to be more generally applied to any planetoidal body at the triangular Lagrangian point of any two bodies -- examples are known to exist in the Sun-Saturn and Sun-Mars systems, among others -- but strictly speaking it applies only to those in the L4 and L5 points of the Sun-Jupiter combination. |
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