MIT Libraries homeMIT Libraries logoDSpace@MIT

MIT
View Item 
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

STABILITY OF SATELLITES IN CLOSELY PACKED PLANETARY SYSTEMS

Author(s)
Payne, Matthew J.; Deck, Katherine M.; Holman, Matthew J.; Perets, Hagai B.
Thumbnail
DownloadPayne-2013-STABILITY OF SATELLI.pdf (25.93Mb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY

Publisher Policy

Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.

Terms of use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
We perform numerical integrations of four-body (star, planet, planet, satellite) systems to investigate the stability of satellites in planetary systems with tightly packed inner planets (STIPs). We find that the majority of closely spaced stable two-planet systems can stably support satellites across a range of parameter-space which is only slightly decreased compared to that seen for the single-planet case. In particular, circular prograde satellites remain stable out to ~0.4 R[subscript H] (where R[subscript H] is the Hill radius) as opposed to 0.5 R[subscript H] in the single-planet case. A similarly small restriction in the stable parameter-space for retrograde satellites is observed, where planetary close approaches in the range 2.5-4.5 mutual Hill radii destabilize most satellites orbits only if a ~ 0.65 R[subscript H]. In very close planetary pairs (e.g., the 12:11 resonance) the addition of a satellite frequently destabilizes the entire system, causing extreme close approaches and the loss of satellites over a range of circumplanetary semi-major axes. The majority of systems investigated stably harbored satellites over a wide parameter-space, suggesting that STIPs can generally offer a dynamically stable home for satellites, albeit with a slightly smaller stable parameter-space than the single-planet case. As we demonstrate that multi-planet systems are not a priori poor candidates for hosting satellites, future measurements of satellite occurrence rates in multi-planet systems versus single-planet systems could be used to constrain either satellite formation or past periods of strong dynamical interaction between planets.
Date issued
2013-09
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93729
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics; MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal. Letters
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Payne, Matthew J., Katherine M. Deck, Matthew J. Holman, and Hagai B. Perets. “STABILITY OF SATELLITES IN CLOSELY PACKED PLANETARY SYSTEMS.” The Astrophysical Journal 775, no. 2 (September 18, 2013): L44. © 2013 The American Astronomical Society
Version: Final published version
ISSN
2041-8205
2041-8213

Collections
  • MIT Open Access Articles

Browse

All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login

Statistics

OA StatisticsStatistics by CountryStatistics by Department
MIT Libraries homeMIT Libraries logo

Find us on

Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube RSS

MIT Libraries navigation

SearchHours & locationsBorrow & requestResearch supportAbout us
PrivacyPermissionsAccessibility
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Content created by the MIT Libraries, CC BY-NC unless otherwise noted. Notify us about copyright concerns.