English

Synchronous Satellites of Venus

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2021-12-14 v1

Abstract

Synchronous satellites of Venus have long been thought unstable, but we use Poincare's surface of section technique to show that synchronous quasi-satellites orbiting just outside Venus' Hill sphere are quite stable, at least for centuries. Such synchrosats always remain within a few degrees of Venus' equator, and drift very slowly in longitude. These synchrosats could be useful for continuous monitoring of points on Venus' surface, such as active landforms or long-lived landers.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2112.06313,
  title  = {Synchronous Satellites of Venus},
  author = {Anthony R. Dobrovolskis and Jose Luis Alvarellos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.06313},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

Advances in Space Research 2021