ynamical stability in the vicinity of Saturnian small moons: the cases of Aegaeon, Methone, Anthe, and Pallen

Autor(es)

Rodriguez, Adrian ^[1] ; Callegari, Jr., N. ^[2]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, Observ Valongo, Ladeira Pedro Antonio 43, BR-20080090 Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

^[2] Sao Paulo State Univ, UNESP, Inst Geosci & Exact Sci, Av 24-A, BR-13506900 Rio Claro, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; v. 506, n. 4, p. 5093-5107, OCT 2021.
• Citações Web of Science: 1

Resumo

In this work we analyse the orbital evolution and dynamical stability in the vicinity of the small Saturnian moons Aegaeon, Methone, Anthe, and Pallene. We numerically resolve the exact equations of motions to investigate the orbital motion of thousands of test particles within and near the domain of the 7/6, 14/15, 10/11 mean-motion resonances of Aegaeon, Methone, and Anthe with Mimas, respectively. We show that, for massless small moons, the orbits of particles initially restricted to the resonant domains remain stable for at least 10(4) yr. We also conduct numerical simulations considering Aegaeon, Methone, Anthe, and Pallene as massive bodies. The results show that most particles undergo significant perturbations in their orbital motions, ultimately destabilizing on time-scales of a few hundreds of years or even less through collisions with the four small moons. In addition, we also simulate the orbital evolution of test particles initially distributed in the form of arcs around Aegaeon, Methone, and Anthe. We show that the initial arcs are dynamically eroded on time-scales of hundreds of years, allowing us to constrain the time-scales on which gravitational forces operate to remove particles from the observed arcs. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 20/06807-7 - Dinâmica ressonante de pequenos satélites e partículas no sistema interior de Saturno
• Beneficiário: Nelson Callegari Júnior
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular