Chaotic Zones around Rotating Small Bodies

Journal Article · Thu Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Astronomical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/AA7203· OSTI ID:22663549

Lages, José; Shevchenko, Ivan I. ^[1]

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1. Institut UTINAM, Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers THETA, CNRS, Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon F-25030 (France)

Small bodies of the solar system, like asteroids, trans-Neptunian objects, cometary nuclei, and planetary satellites, with diameters smaller than 1000 km usually have irregular shapes, often resembling dumb-bells or contact binaries. The spinning of such a gravitating dumb-bell creates around it a zone of chaotic orbits. We determine its extent analytically and numerically. We find that the chaotic zone swells significantly if the rotation rate is decreased; in particular, the zone swells more than twice if the rotation rate is decreased 10 times with respect to the “centrifugal breakup” threshold. We illustrate the properties of the chaotic orbital zones in examples of the global orbital dynamics about asteroid 243 Ida (which has a moon, Dactyl, orbiting near the edge of the chaotic zone) and asteroid 25143 Itokawa.

• OSTI ID: 22663549
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (Online), Journal Name: Astronomical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 153; ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTEROIDS
CHAOS THEORY
COMETS
MOON
ORBITS
PLANETS
ROTATION
SHAPE
SOLAR SYSTEM
STABILITY
ZONES