Asteroid in Jupiter's orbit goes its own way

 

Outside of its orderly inner system of major moons, Jupiter is haloed by dozens of minor moons that can loop millions of kilometers out into space in years-long orbits. These moons are thought to be objects that Jupiter has occasionally captured from all the various comets, Centaurs and asteroids that cross Jupiter's path.

But how such a capture could occur has always been a puzzle; studied as abstract masses, there's nothing that one planet and one asteroid can do together that would put the asteroid into orbit around the planet.

But it's also long been mathematically theorized that capture would be possible if the asteroid were to split at least once during a close encounter with Jupiter. One piece could carry away most of the ... Read more »