 |  NASA’s Wise Mission Finds First Trojan Asteroid Sharing Earth’s Orbit
 27 July 2011
Astronomers studying observations taken by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer (WISE) mission discovered the first known "Trojan" asteroid orbiting the sun
along with Earth. The asteroid was designated 2010 TK7. Scientists had predicted
Earth should have Trojans, but they have been difficult to find because they are
relatively small and appear near the sun from Earth’s point of view. 2011 TK7 was
discovered because it has an unusual orbit that takes it farther away from the sun
than what is typical for Trojans.
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