Tadpole Orbit
Figure 1 above shows shorter orbits around the Lagrangian points L4 and L5 (e.g. the lines close to the blue triangles). These are called tadpole orbits and can be explained in a similar way, except that the asteroid's distance from the Earth does not oscillate as far as the L3 point on the other side of the Sun. As it moves closer to or farther from the Earth, the changing pull of Earth's gravitational field causes it to accelerate or decelerate, causing a change in its orbit known as libration.
An example of a body in a tadpole orbit is Polydeuces, a small moon of Saturn which librates around the trailing L5 point relative to a larger moon, Dione.
Read more about this topic: Horseshoe Orbit
Famous quotes containing the words tadpole and/or orbit:
“Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link. The men on the freight trains, who go over the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)