Correction to the arithmetic I just did: (the following is a rewrite of old paragraph that contained wrong arithmetic, sorry) Well, to do some actual arithmetic, let's say our solar system's trojans in total mass equalled Mars, but split into 6000 equal pieces. Their surface area would then be that of Mars times cuberoot(6000)=18. This is clearly inadequate to produce the occlusion levels you observed, but it is not peanuts -- this is approximately equal to the 1/20 of the surface area of the planet jupiter. So our solar's trojans if they lay in a ball of the same size as our sun would produce about 1/20 the occultation jupiter produces. Jupiter produces 1% dimming of the sun. It does not seem impossible that in some other solar system, there could be an factor 400 more Trojans measured by surface area, for example from 20 times the total mass, and the splitting is into pieces with 20 times smaller radius, and 20*20=400. The result would be entirely capable of causing 20% dim of their sun, but without any dust needed. [Numbers I used: radius mars = 3386 radius jupiter = 69173 radius sun = 695500 km.] -- Warren D. Smith http://RangeVoting.org <-- add your endorsement (by clicking "endorse" as 1st step)