This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: An international team led by researchers at Queen's University Belfast has made a discovery that has eluded astronomers for decades. Beginning in 1906, telescope observations revealed a population of asteroids leading and trailing Jupiter, which came to be known as the "Trojan" and "Greek" populations.
Since then, astronomers have discovered similar "families" orbiting Saturn and Uranus, but not Neptune. Thanks to the Queen's-led team, the mystery of the missing Trojans has now been resolved. As detailed in a paper they published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the team found these distant icy bodies by analyzing data from the Vera C.
Rubin Observatory, the next-generation telescope perched high atop the Andes in Chile. Thanks to Rubin's sharp optics and ability to rapidly survey the night sky (the fastest of any ground-based telescope), the team identified two asteroids and a candidate as permanent members of Neptune's trailing Trojans. Meg Schwamb, an astronomer and lecturer at the Astrophysics Research Center, Queen's University Belfast (QUB).
She was joined by researchers from the Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG), the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), the DiRAC Institute, the Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society (MIDAS), JHUAPL, the NSF's NOIRLAB and multiple universities worldwide. Rubin Observatory combines the resolution of its 8.4-meter (27.6-foot) Simony Survey Telescope with the LSST Camera, the largest digital camera ever built. Having commenced operations in June 2025, Rubin is currently conducting the largest survey of the southern sky—the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).
At the same time, it is mapping the northern sky to create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of the cosmos. Through these surveys, Rubin will provide new insight into the mysteries of the cosmos, including dark matter and dark energy. It will map the Milky Way and its faint satellite galaxies, detect transient phenomena (supernovae, variable stars, rogue planets, etc.) and create an inventory of objects in the solar system.
This last objective was what drew Schwamb and her team to analyze data from Rubin's early test observations last year. After combining this massive trove of data, the team identified the objects as primordial members of the elusive trailing Neptune Trojan population. "Early data from Rubin Observatory is already expanding our knowledge of the solar system's 'small bodies,' including asteroids, comets and other minor planets," Schwamb explained in a QUB press release.
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