Searching for Earth’s Trojan Asteroids

Trojan asteroids are common at the L4 and L5 Lagrange points of other planets, leading or following the planet in its orbit. But detecting our own Trojan asteroids from Earth is difficult since they appear close to the sun from our perspective. In mid-February 2017, NASA's OSIRS-REx mission will search for these elusive objects when the spacecraft passes by Earth's L4 Lagrange point, en route to asteroid Bennu in 2018. Jim Green, the Director of Planetary Science at NASA, discusses OSIRIS-REx and its search for Earth's Trojan asteroids.

Music: "Meadows" by Daniel Pemberton, Atmosphere Music Ltd/Killer Tracks Music

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Dan Gallagher

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[rockopeace]

I love Jim Green. He's so cute. Science is cute!

[Master_Therion]

"It's a trap!" 1:07
Admiral Ackbar agrees. ^_^ Thanks NASA

[DavidODuvall]

Dear NASA, assuming that one or more Trojan asteroids are found, is there an estimation as to how long will we have to wait until we get to see the images or data?

[theWanderer]

I love how they put some humor/fun about this endeavor ~ but when you realize it's really scary due to the fact we are not yet capable of detecting near earth asteroids that can possibly put us in danger

[BlackEpyon]

Was it L4 that had the Trojans and L5 with the Spartans? Or the other way around. Typically, they're both called Trojan.

[galaxia]

NASA, one of the most cool organizations, and employees, in the world!

[karlmiller]

Can’t find any info on earths L4 from Osiris

[nolanjdon]

L5 is the forgotten child, but harder to reach I just realized. XD

[harryandruschak]

Hope you find something. Those L4 and L5 might be good places for space colonies.

[geomodelrailroader]

if we find an asteroid and mine it we would know a lot more about the solar system and we might be able to collect more resources

[dpevjen]

We already know about Earth's First Trojan Asteroid "2010 TK7". Since this asteroid is around 300 meters in diameter and is located at L2 (tied by gravity to earth), it would be a perfect source of raw material to use for building a massive space colony. The colony could be attached to the asteroid which would be harvested for its useful elements such as water, oxygen, and light metals. The bulk of its soil could be used for radiation shielding. Elon Musk and the other billionaires' who are space explorer want to be's should seriously consider this object as their first conquest.

[AntifoulAwl]

Can't we detect our Trojans from Earth?

[saxonlight]

The goofy music and Mr. Rogers act is a little creepy NASA. Given the amount of money taxpayers put into the agency, it would be nice to get a better presentation.