The Second Earth Trojan 2020 XL5

The Earth Trojans are coorbitals librating around the Lagrange points L (4) or L (5) of the Sun-Earth system. Although many numerical studies suggest that they can maintain their dynamical status and be stable on timescales up to a few tens of thousands of years or even longer, they remain an elusive population. Thus far only one transient member (2010 TK7) has been discovered serendipitously. Here, we present a dynamical study of asteroid 2020 XL5. With our meticulous follow-up astrometric observations of the object, we confirmed that it is a new Earth Trojan. However, its eccentric orbit brings it close encounters with Venus on a frequent basis. Based on our N-body integration, we found that the asteroid was captured into the current Earth Trojan status in the fifteenth century, and then it has a likelihood of 99.5% to leave the L (4) region within the next similar to 10 kyr. Therefore, it is most likely that 2020 XL5 is dynamically unstable over this timescale.

Automated summary

Earth Trojans are coorbitals librating around the Lagrange points L (4) or L (5) of the Sun-Earth system. Only one transient member has been discovered so far. The latest research confirms that 2020 XL5 is a new Earth Trojan, but its eccentric orbit may make it dynamically unstable over the next few thousand years.