Pre-late Heavy Bombardment Evolution of the Earth's Obliquity
- Creators
- Li, Gongjie
- Batygin, Konstantin
Abstract
The Earth's obliquity is stabilized by the Moon, which facilitates a rapid precession of the Earth's spin axis, detuning the system away from resonance with orbital modulation. It is, however, likely that the architecture of the solar system underwent a dynamical instability-driven transformation, where the primordial configuration was more compact. Hence, the characteristic frequencies associated with orbital perturbations were likely faster in the past, potentially allowing for secular resonant encounters. In this work, we examine if, at any point in the Earth's evolutionary history, the obliquity varied significantly. Our calculations suggest that even though the orbital perturbations were different, the system nevertheless avoided resonant encounters throughout its evolution. This indicates that the Earth obtained its current obliquity during the formation of the Moon.
Additional Information
© 2014 American Astronomical Society. Received 2014 June 28; accepted 2014 September 8; published 2014 October 14.Attached Files
Published - 0004-637X_795_1_67.pdf
Accepted Version - 1409.2881.pdf
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Additional details
- Alternative title
- Pre-LHB Evolution of the Earth's Obliquity
- Eprint ID
- 52220
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20141201-105544866
- Created
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2014-12-01Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences