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A. Christou (Armagh Observatory)
The asteroids (1) Ceres and (4) Vesta are two of the most massive objects in the Main asteroid Belt. As such their perturbing effects on the motion of other asteroids is substantial and has served as a proxy for these asteroids' masses. Recently, it was shown that Ceres, and possibly Vesta, are capable of trapping and maintaining other asteroids as their co-orbitals in the same manner that the planets Jupiter and Mars hold their respective Trojan families (Christou, A&A 356, 71--74, 2000). One asteroid in particular, (1372) Haremari, is probably co-orbiting with Ceres at the present time. This presentation will discuss the main dynamical features of the motion of these seemingly unlikely co-orbitals both as independent members of the solar system and in relation to their primaries. Comparisons with asteroids co-orbiting with the major planets will be made in order to assess the dependence of the dynamics on the very different environment within which the two classes of co-orbitals evolve. The possibility of existence of a distinct population of this and related classes of objects in the vicinity of the most massive asteroids (eg.~distant retrograde satellites) will be explored.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: aac@star.arm.ac.uk