Identification of Priority Targets in the Jovian Trojans using Astrocladistics.

The Jovian Trojans are remnants of the early Solar system, trapped in two swarms that are in 1:1 resonance with Jupiter. Several of these objects will be visited by the Lucy spacecraft over the next few years.

Astrocladistics is a novel technique, based on a related biological methodology, used to create the ‘Tree of Life’. Color data from WISE, SDSS, Gaia DR2 and MOVIS surveys are combined with knowledge of the physical and orbital characteristics of the Trojans, to generate a classification tree composed of clans with distinctive characteristics.

Using astrocladistics, the Jovian Trojans can be broken up in to multiples clans of related objects. Within these clans we identify 14 priority targets. These are larger objects (H-mag > 11.1) that are recommended for additional observations. Further observations of these objects could help place the future Lucy observations in a wider context.