The Lagrangian Points are points in space, where the combination of gravitational pull of a set of two bodies and the centripetal force of orbiting one of them add up to zero. The special property of L₄ and L₅ points - in Earth-Sun system, located on Earth orbit a sixth of its length away from Earth, in leading and trailing direction respectively, is that they are actually stable - while, similarly to other Lagrangian Points they are local maxima of gravity field, unstable gravity-wise, the Coriolis Force of the set of the bodies creates local minimum there, overcoming the force of gravity locally and making them act similar to gravity wells; anything that gets sufficiently near and moving sufficiently slowly, will remain there indefinitely (or until impacted by a sufficiently fast meteorite).

That makes them very interesting from space exploration point of view, as potential points where e.g. deep space observatory unaffected by requirement of constant rotation around Earth could reside; also they are expected to have collected quite a few meteorites and shed some light on Earth history, and generally provide a very valuable point at stable distance from Earth and not just barely over its surface.

Now I'm aware the sum of forces keeping bodies inside L₄ and L₅ is fairly weak. I'm interested how weak it is are. Since they are just empty points in space, and not planets with own gravity, obviously quite a few measurements are not applicable, but I guess we could get something indicative, like what is the escape speed from these points' "force well", what is the centripetal acceleration at the "steepest part of their slopes" or such.

I'm quite interested if a space station located there would require active stabilizing to prevent escaping them, or opposite, they would cost significant extra fuel and energy just to escape them.

[see comments for discussion - this question used to ask about "gravity well" of these points, but it was shown they don't actually have any, being maxima like others; still, Coriolis Force seems to act like gravity for all practical purposes there, and I'd be quite interested in learning how strong it is there.]

The Lagrangian Points are points in space, where the combination of gravitational pull of a set of two bodies and the centripetal force of orbiting one of them add up to zero. The special property of $L_4$ and $L_5$ points - in Earth-Sun system, located on Earth orbit a sixth of its length away from Earth, in leading and trailing direction respectively, is that they are actually stable - while, similarly to other Lagrangian Points they are local maxima of gravity field, unstable gravity-wise, the Coriolis Force of the set of the bodies creates local minimum there, overcoming the force of gravity locally and making them act similar to gravity wells; anything that gets sufficiently near and moving sufficiently slowly, will remain there indefinitely (or until impacted by a sufficiently fast meteorite).

That makes them very interesting from space exploration point of view, as potential points where e.g. deep space observatory unaffected by requirement of constant rotation around Earth could reside; also they are expected to have collected quite a few meteorites and shed some light on Earth history, and generally provide a very valuable point at stable distance from Earth and not just barely over its surface.

Now I'm aware the sum of forces keeping bodies inside $L_4$ and $L_5$ is fairly weak. I'm interested how weak it is are. Since they are just empty points in space, and not planets with own gravity, obviously quite a few measurements are not applicable, but I guess we could get something indicative, like what is the escape speed from these points' "force well", what is the centripetal acceleration at the "steepest part of their slopes" or such.

I'm quite interested if a space station located there would require active stabilizing to prevent escaping them, or opposite, they would cost significant extra fuel and energy just to escape them.

[see comments for discussion - this question used to ask about "gravity well" of these points, but it was shown they don't actually have any, being maxima like others; still, Coriolis Force seems to act like gravity for all practical purposes there, and I'd be quite interested in learning how strong it is there.]

The Lagrangian Points are points in space, where the combination of gravitational pull of a set of two bodies and the centripetal force of orbiting one of them add up to zero. The special property of L₄ and L₅ points - in Earth-Sun system, located on Earth orbit a sixth of its length away from Earth, in leading and trailing direction respectively, is that they are actually stable - that means they actually form a gravity well; anything that gets sufficiently near and moving sufficiently slowly, will get pulled to their middle and remain there indefinitely (or until impacted by a sufficiently fast meteorite).

That makes them very interesting from space exploration point of view, as potential points where e.g. deep space observatory unaffected by requirement of constant rotation around Earth could reside; also they are expected to have collected quite a few meteorites and shed some light on Earth history, and generally provide a very valuable point at stable distance from Earth and not just barely over its surface.

Now I'm aware L₄ and L₅ are fairly weak. I'm interested how weak they are. Since they are just empty points in space, and not planets with own gravity, obviously quite a few measurements are not applicable, but I guess we could get something indicative, like what is the escape speed from these points' gravitational well, what is the gravitational acceleration at the "steepest part of their slopes"?

I'm quite interested if a space station located there would require active stabilizing to prevent escaping them, or opposite, they would cost significant extra fuel and energy just to escape them.

The Lagrangian Points are points in space, where the combination of gravitational pull of a set of two bodies and the centripetal force of orbiting one of them add up to zero. The special property of L₄ and L₅ points - in Earth-Sun system, located on Earth orbit a sixth of its length away from Earth, in leading and trailing direction respectively, is that they are actually stable - while, similarly to other Lagrangian Points they are local maxima of gravity field, unstable gravity-wise, the Coriolis Force of the set of the bodies creates local minimum there, overcoming the force of gravity locally and making them act similar to gravity wells; anything that gets sufficiently near and moving sufficiently slowly, will remain there indefinitely (or until impacted by a sufficiently fast meteorite).

That makes them very interesting from space exploration point of view, as potential points where e.g. deep space observatory unaffected by requirement of constant rotation around Earth could reside; also they are expected to have collected quite a few meteorites and shed some light on Earth history, and generally provide a very valuable point at stable distance from Earth and not just barely over its surface.

Now I'm aware the sum of forces keeping bodies inside L₄ and L₅ is fairly weak. I'm interested how weak it is are. Since they are just empty points in space, and not planets with own gravity, obviously quite a few measurements are not applicable, but I guess we could get something indicative, like what is the escape speed from these points' "force well", what is the centripetal acceleration at the "steepest part of their slopes" or such.

I'm quite interested if a space station located there would require active stabilizing to prevent escaping them, or opposite, they would cost significant extra fuel and energy just to escape them.

[see comments for discussion - this question used to ask about "gravity well" of these points, but it was shown they don't actually have any, being maxima like others; still, Coriolis Force seems to act like gravity for all practical purposes there, and I'd be quite interested in learning how strong it is there.]