Why haven't we discovered co-orbital exoplanets? Tides may offer a possible answer

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Why haven't we discovered co-orbital exoplanets? Tides may offer a possible answer

In our solar system, there are several thousand examples of co-orbital objects: bodies that share the same orbit around the sun or a planet. The Trojan asteroids are such an example. We have not yet observed any similar co-orbitals in extrasolar systems, despite discovering more than 5,000 exoplanets. In a new study published in Icarus by Anthony Dobrovolskis, SETI Institute, and Jack Lissauer, NASA Ames Research Center, the authors theorize tha…