Three Asteroids Are Co-Orbital with Uranus

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Researchers Confirm Three Asteroids Are Co-Orbital with Uranus

In two new studies, researchers confirm that the 70km asteroid Crantor and two smaller asteroids (2010 EU65 and 2011 QF99) are co-orbiting with Uranus.

Astrophysicists from the Complutense University of Madrid have confirmed that Crantor, a large asteroid with a diameter of 70 km has an orbit similar to that of Uranus and takes the same amount of time to orbit the Sun. Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that this and a further two objects of the group of the Centaurs are co-orbital with Uranus.

Uruguayan astronomer Tabaré Gallardo suggested in 2006 that the asteroids Crantor and 2000 SN331 complete their orbits of the Sun in the same time period as Uranus – an orbit of approximately 84 Earth years. Now two researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) have confirmed that in the case of Crantor this is true.

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[Taun]

So... since Uranus apparently hasn't cleared it's orbit... does that mean that Uranus like Pluto isn't a 'real' planet?

(just messing with you waspie )

[Waspie_Dwarf]

So... since Uranus apparently hasn't cleared it's orbit... does that mean that Uranus like Pluto isn't a 'real' planet?

(just messing with you waspie )

Messing you may be, but it's a valid point.

By the IAU definition it HAS "cleared the neighbourhood".

Clearing the neighbourhood does not mean there are no other co-orbital objects (by that definition even Jupiter would be a dwarf planet, which is clearly nonsense).

It means that the planet is:

gravitationally dominant, and there are no other bodies of comparable size other than its own satellites or those otherwise under its gravitational influence.

Source: Wikipedia {my emphasis).

Since Trojans are under the gravitational influence of the planet the orbit can be considered cleared.

Uranus meets this requirement, Pluto does not.