Do gravity holes harbour planetary assassins? - space - 18 February 2009 - New Scientist

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Do gravity holes harbour planetary assassins? - space - 18 February 2009 - New Scientist

NASA's STEREO spacecraft are due to pass through the L4 and L5 Lagrange points that lead and trail our planet. Referred to as "celestial flypaper", the are regions of space in which the gravitational forces cancel out so any object caught in them remains there. The L4 and L5 points around Jupiter contain asteroids so the STEREO craft are being used to search for similar objects. Any objects in Earth's L4 and L5 points are effectively invisible to Earth because they appear to us as lying close to the sun, making it difficult for telescopes to objects located there. Of greatest concern is whether an asteroid might lie in one of Earth's Lagrange points; if shaken loose from the Lagrange point, they would have a high probability of striking Earth.