4 ms·
L1, L2 and L3 are unstable - if you start to drift away even a tiny bit, that drift gets amplified over time. Staying at one of these points requires at least s
by ekimekim 9y ago
L1, L2 and L3 are unstable - if you start to drift away even a tiny bit, that drift gets amplified over time. Staying at one of these points requires at least some station-keeping.
L4 and L5, by contrast, are stable - even if you're not perfectly on the dot, you'll kind of "orbit" around the point if you're close enough. See [1].
These L4 and L5 points have, over the eons, collected many natural satellites (ie. asteroids) which are commonly called Trojans[2].
However, space is really, really big[3] so this isn't of too much concern to spacecraft.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_orbit#Tadpole_orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_orbit#Tadpole_orbit
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_(astronomy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_(astronomy)
[3] Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Edit: better link for [1]