Monday, March 31, 2008

Kordylewski clouds

Kordylewski clouds are large concentrations of dust that may exist at the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points of the Earth-Moon system. They were first reported by Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in the 1960s, but there is still controversy as to whether they actually exist, due to their extreme faintness. It is thought by some that they could be a transient phenomenon as the L4 and L5 points are unstable, due to the perturbations of the inner planets.