Orbit determination of the moons of the Pluto-Charon system
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.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2202.13319,
title = {Orbit determination of the moons of the Pluto-Charon system},
author = {Dionysios Gakis and Konstantinos N. Gourgouliatos},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.13319},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
20 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy