Caltech/IPAC Lunch Seminar

The Jovian Trojan Asteroids (hereafter, Trojans) are a large population of primitive asteroids found in Jupiter's L4 and L5 Lagrange points and are dynamically stable over the lifetime of the Solar System. These primitive asteroids tie together formation theories and dynamical models that explain how our Solar System formed. Trojans share important characteristics with the dynamically excited Kuiper Belt populations and the Neptune Trojans. As such, Trojans may be one of the most accessible examples of the planetesimals that populated the protoplanetary disk. NASA's Lucy mission, which launched in October of 2022, will be the first to explore the Trojan asteroids. I will present JWST MIRI/MRS spectra of the Lucy mission's Trojan targets, and discuss mineralogical implications for their primordial Kuiper Belt origins.