The long-term dynamics of the Jovian irregular satellites

Abstract

Context. The dynamical region of the Jovian irregular satellites presents an interesting web of resonances that are not yet fully understood. Of particular interest is the influence of the resonances on the stochasticity of the individual orbits of the satellites, as well as on the long-term chaotic diffusion of the different families of satellites. Aims. We make a systematic numerical study of the satellite region to determine the important resonances for the dynamics, to search for the chaotic zones, and to determine their influences on the dynamics of the satellites. We also compare these numerical results to previous analytical works. Methods. Using extensive numerical integrations of the satellites along with an indicator of chaos (MEGNO), we show global and detailed views of the retrograde and prograde regions for various dynamical models of increasing complexity and indicate the appearance of the different types of resonances and the implied chaos. Results. Along with secular and mean motion resonances that shape the dynamical regions of the satellites, we report a number of resonances involving the Great Inequality, and which are present in the system thanks to the wide range of the values of frequencies of the pericenter available for the satellites. The chaotic diffusion of the satellites is also studied and shows the long-term stability of the Ananke and Carme families, in contrast to the Pasiphae family.

Stability of Satellites in Closely Packed Planetary Systems

“…region X in Fig. 2) (this is similar to the behavior of many Solar System irregular satellites: (Nesvorný et al 2003;Frouard et al 2010Frouard et al , 2011, and references therein).…”

Secular resonances between bodies on close orbits: a case study of the Himalia prograde group of jovian irregular satellites

“…In Christou (2005), Saturn and the jovian oblateness were taken into account and in such a configuration, he found the resonance in ∆ Ω . Including other planets may introduce additional dynamical effects such as secular resonances (see, e.g., Beaugé and Nesvorný 2007;Frouard et al 2011).…”

“…Hinse et al (2010) applied the MEGNO technique to jovian irregular satellites and identified chaotic and quasi-periodic regions; they also found some high-order mean motion resonances. Using similar methods, Frouard et al (2011) reported a number of resonances related to the Great Inequality and revealed the chaotic diffusion in different irregular satellite groups.…”

Instability zones for satellites of asteroids: The example of the (87) Sylvia system

“…We used the MEGNO indicator (Cincotta & Simó 2000) in order to distinguish among regular and chaotic orbit. The MEGNO is a fast chaos indicator based on the numerical integration of a tangent vector, that has proved to be reliable in a large class of dynamical systems (Cincotta et al 2003;Goździewski et al 2001Goździewski et al , 2008aBreiter et al 2005;Compère et al 2012a;Frouard et al 2011).…”