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Published online 15 June 2006 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news060612-13
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Asteroid escorts spotted in neptune's orbit
Orbit of Trojan asteroids suggest planets may have swapped places.
A family of small objects locked into the same orbit as Neptune has been spotted, lending support to the theory that the giant planets of our Solar System migrated over huge distances before settling into their current orbits.
The bodies, known as Trojan asteroids (although it is not clear that they are rocky, rather than icy), travel around the Sun at the same distance from the Sun as Neptune.
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