Orbit determination of the moons of the Pluto-Charon system

DOI10.1007/S10569-022-10071-XMaRDI QIDQ2138492zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Dionysios Gakis, Konstantinos N. Gourgouliatos

Publication date 12 May 2022

Published in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.13319

zbMATH Keywords

\(n\)-body problemcircumbinary orbitsmoonsPluto

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Orbital mechanics (70M20)

Abstract: Four small moons (Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra) are at present known to orbit around the barycenter of Pluto and Charon, which are themselves considered a binary dwarf-planet due to their relatively high mass ratio. The central, non-axisymmetric potential induces moon orbits inconvenient to be described by Keplerian osculating elements. Here, we report that observed orbital variations, may not be the result of orbital eccentricities or observational uncertainties, but may be due to forced oscillations caused by the central binary. We show, using numerical integration and analytical considerations, that the differences reported on their orbital elements, may well arise from this intrinsic behavior rather than limitations on our instruments.

Recommendations

• P-type orbits in the Pluto-Charon system
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Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3990927 (Why is no real title available?)
• Solar System Dynamics
• Stability of artificial and natural satellites
• Theory of orbit. The restricted problem of three bodies

Cited in

(6)

• The relative motion and shapes of Pluto and Charon
• P-type orbits in the Pluto-Charon system
• Pluto moons exhibit orbital angular momentum quantization per mass
• Accurate analytical representation of Pluto modern ephemeris
• The mystery of Pluto's mass -- the ring hypothesis
• Orbit of an astrometric binary system

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