Related papers: On the oscillations in Mercury's obliquity
The planet Mercury is locked in a spin-orbit resonance where it rotates three times about its spin axis for every two orbits about the Sun. The current explanation for this unique state assumes that the initial rotation of this planet was…
It is attempted to obtain the masses of the celestial bodies, the initial conditions of their motion, and the constant of gravitation, by a global parameter optimization. First, a numerical solution of the N-bodies problem for mass points…
The stellar spin orientation relative to the orbital planes of multiplanet systems are becoming accessible to observations. Here, we analyze and classify different types of spin-orbit evolution in compact multiplanet systems perturbed by an…
We present a model of the Cassini state of Mercury that comprises an inner core, a fluid core and a mantle. Our model includes inertial and gravitational torques between interior regions, and viscous and electromagnetic (EM) coupling at the…
We place the first constraints on the obliquity of a planetary-mass companion (PMC) outside of the Solar System. Our target is the directly imaged system 2MASS J01225093-2439505 (2M0122), which consists of a 120 Myr 0.4 M_sun star hosting a…
We study the spin evolution of close-in planets in multi-body systems and present a very general formulation of the spin-orbit problem. This includes a simple way to probe the spin dynamics from the orbital perturbations, a new method for…
We study the chaotic orbital evolution of planetary systems, focusing on secular (i.e., orbit-averaged) interactions, because these often dominate on long timescales. We first focus on the evolution of a test particle that is forced by…
The planetary perturbations on Mercury's orbit lead to long-period forced librations of Mercury's mantle. These librations have previously been studied for a planet with two layers: a mantle and a liquid core. Here, we calculate how the…
The dynamical evolution of terrestrial planets resembling Mercury in the vicinity of spin-orbit resonances is investigated using comprehensive harmonic expansions of the tidal torque taking into account the frequency-dependent quality…
Following the discovery of several ocean worlds in the solar system, and the selection of Uranus as the highest priority objective by the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032, the five largest moons of Uranus…
This paper deals with the application of the creep tide theory (Ferraz-Mello, CeMDA 116, 109, 2013) to the rotation of close-in satellites, Mercury, close-in exoplanets and their host stars. The solutions show two extreme cases: close-in…
This paper deals with the rotation and figure evolution of a planet near the 3/2 spin-orbit resonance and the exploration of a new formulation of the creep tide theory (Folonier et al. 2018). This new formulation is composed by a system of…
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission will provide simultaneous measurements from two spacecraft, offering an unprecedented opportunity to investigate magnetospheric and exospheric dynamics at Mercury as well as their interactions with the solar…
This study analyzes secular dynamics using averaged equations that detail tidal effects on the motion of two extended bodies in Keplerian orbits. It introduces formulas for energy dissipation within each body of a binary system. The…
This paper studies the secondary's rotation in a synchronous binary asteroid system in which the secondary enters the 1:1 spin-orbit resonance. The model used is the planar full two-body problem composed of a spherical primary plus a…
A statistical analysis is performed over more than 1001 different integrations of the secular equations of the Solar system over 5 Gyr. With this secular system, the probability of the eccentricity of Mercury to reach 0.6 in 5 Gyr is about…
In this paper we first calculate the post-Newtonian gravitoelectric secular rate of the mean anomaly of a test particle freely orbiting a spherically symmetric central mass. Then, we propose a novel approach to suitably combine the…
Mercury's eccentricity is chaotic and can increase so much that collisions with Venus or the Sun become possible (Laskar, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2008, Batygin & Laughlin, 2008, Laskar & Gastineau, 2009). This chaotic behavior results from an…
In this paper, we investigate whether Uranus's 98$^{\circ}$ obliquity was a by-product of a secular spin-orbit resonance assuming that the planet originated closer to the Sun. In this position, Uranus's spin precession frequency is fast…
The angle between the rotation and orbital axes of stars in binary systems -- the obliquity -- is an important indicator of how these systems form and evolve but few such measurements exist. We combine the sample of astrometric orbital…