Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published January 2017 | Published
Journal Article Open

Classification of Satellite Resonances in the Solar System

Abstract

Several pairs of solar system satellites occupy mean motion resonances (MMRs). We divide these into two groups according to their proximity to exact resonance. Proximity is measured by the existence of a separatrix in phase space. MMRs between Io–Europa, Europa–Ganymede, and Enceladus–Dione are too distant from exact resonance for a separatrix to appear. A separatrix is present only in the phase spaces of the Mimas–Tethys and Titan–Hyperion MMRs, and their resonant arguments are the only ones to exhibit substantial librations. Could there be a causal connection between the libration amplitude and the presence of a separatrix? Our suspicions were aroused by Goldreich & Schlichting, who demonstrate that sufficiently deep in a MMR, eccentricity damping could destabilize librations. However, our investigation reveals that libration amplitudes in both the Mimas–Tethys and Titan–Hyperion MMRs are fossils. Although the Mimas–Tethys MMR is overstable, its libration amplitude grows on the tidal damping timescale of Mimas's inclination, which is considerably longer than a Hubble time. On the other hand, the Titan–Hyperion MMR is stable, but tidal damping of Hyperion's eccentricity is too weak to have affected the amplitude of its libration.

Additional Information

© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2016 February 27; revised 2016 October 18; accepted 2016 October 30; published 2016 December 21. We thank the anonymous referee who provided valuable comments and questions, which helped us to greatly improve the paper. We thank Katherine Deck for alerting us to differences in librational stability between e- and e'-type MMRs (Deck & Batygin 2015) and Eugene Chiang for helpful comments on our presentation.

Attached Files

Published - Luan_2017_AJ_153_17.pdf

Files

Luan_2017_AJ_153_17.pdf
Files (360.3 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:f9d76cf290103999b1fc8d507931414d
360.3 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 24, 2023