A small space rock that is partially related to the earth by a chain of gravitation is to first planet known Trojan asteroids, astronomers say.

The Trojans are objects that are gravitationally stable regions in front of or behind another body, so they share the same orbit but never collide.

Trojan asteroids have been discovered around Jupiter, Neptune and Mars and Saturn in orbit by a few groups of the moons of Troy.

The recently discovered Trojan is about 1,000 feet (300 meters) wide and sits on about 50 million kilometers (80000000 km) in front of the Earth.

"It is in orbit around the Sun in the same way that our orbital path is, and is controlled in part by our severity, but the Sun's gravity to control," said Martin Connors, an astronomer at the University of Athabasca in Canada and one of the co-discoverers of the object.

Connors compared with the orange strange asteroid with an outstretched arm, by a person riding a Ferris wheel. In this analogy, the orange is the Trojan, the person is the Earth and the big wheel is our orbit around the sun.

"The orange would be walking around the wheel, but to keep it at arm's length is up to you," said Connors.

"This Trojan is: There is one important thing is you drag, gravity is the Sun, but Earth has some control over it and if the Earth's gravity does not exist, was another. Of course, as if you'll let go of the orange, that fall to the ground. "

Add The Trojans spotted yet?

Scientists have long predicted that the earth should be the Trojans, but, like the asteroid had not noticed until now, because they tend to be relatively small and scattered in the general direction of the Sun seen from Earth, which are difficult to locate the Star dazzle.

Fortunately, Trojans found traces it takes far enough from the solar telescopes on site.

Connors and his team discovered stone Commons, nicknamed TK7 2010 using NASA's Infrared Survey Explorer wider range, or the wise, the space telescope. The team later confirmed the discovery with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

We do not know when or how the Earth and asteroids, along with the first, but computer models suggest that the orbit of the Trojan will be stable for at least ten thousand years.

Despite being relatively close to Earth, 2010 TK7 not a good candidate for future exploration robots or human, the researchers said.

This is because the asteroid is an unusual slant route over the Earth, which is well above or below the plane of the orbit of our planet. In this configuration, to reach the Trojan require large amounts of fuel.

However, it is possible that the Trojan horses of the earth more conveniently located, which have yet to discover, Connors.

"Among the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, some of them are almost in the plane of Jupiter," he said.

"If we can find similar things for the Earth, then they could be relatively low-power objectives, and would be an interesting opportunity to have."

Earth Trojan asteroid is first described the July 28 issue of the journal Nature.