A Collision Mechanism for the Removal of Earth's Trojan Asteroids

Due to their strong resonances with their host planet, Trojan asteroids can remain in stable orbits for billions of years. As a result, they are powerful probes for constraining the dynamical and chemical history of the solar system. Although we have detected thousands of Jupiter Trojans and dozens of Neptune Trojans, there are currently no known long-term stable Earth Trojans (ETs). Dynamical simulations show that the parameter space for stable ETs is substantial, so their apparent absence poses a mystery. This work uses a large ensemble of N-body simulations to explore how the Trojan population dynamically responds if Earth suffers large collisions, such as those thought to have occurred to form the Moon and/or to have given Earth its late veneer. We show that such collisions can be highly disruptive to the primordial Trojan population, and could have eliminated it altogether. More specifically, if Earth acquired the final 1% of its mass through o(10) collisions, then only similar to 1% of the previously bound Trojan population would remain.

Automated summary

Trojan asteroids, due to their resonance with their host planet, can provide important insights into the dynamical and chemical history of the solar system. While Jupiter and Neptune have long-term stable Trojan asteroids, Earth currently lacks such Trojans. This study uses simulations to investigate the effects of large collisions on Earth's Trojans, and suggests that these collisions can disrupt and potentially eliminate the Trojan population.