Related papers: On the rotational dynamics of Prometheus and Pando…
We present an analytical model to study the dynamics of the outer edge of Saturn's A ring. The latter is influenced by 7:6 mean motion resonances with Janus and Epimetheus. Because of the horseshoe motion of the two co-orbital moons, the…
We analyze the orbital motion of two natural satellites initially in co-orbital configuration with a third (guiding) satellite embedded into a circumplanetary gas disc and undergoing tidal interactions with the central planet. By solving…
Rotation is ubiquitous in the Universe, and recent kinematic surveys have shown that early type galaxies and globular clusters are no exception. Yet the linear response of spheroidal rotating stellar systems has seldom been studied. This…
We investigate the resonant rotation of circumbinary bodies in planar quasi-circular orbits. Denoting $n_b$ and $n$ the orbital mean motion of the inner binary and of the circumbinary body, respectively, we show that spin-orbit resonances…
The navigation satellite constellations in medium-Earth orbit exist in a background of third-body secular resonances stemming from the perturbing gravitational effects of the Moon and the Sun. The resulting chaotic motions, emanating from…
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.…
The origin of the irregular satellites of the giant planets has been long debated since their discovery. Their dynamical features argue against an in-situ formation suggesting they are captured bodies, yet there is no global consensus on…
We conduct a systematic survey of the regions in which distant satellites can orbit stably around the four giant planets in the solar system, using orbital integrations of up to $10^9$ yr. In contrast to previous investigations, we use a…
The gravitational influence of a second satellite on the rotation of an oblate moon is numerically examined. A simplified model, assuming the axis of rotation perpendicular to the (Keplerian) orbit plane, is derived. The differences between…
The Cassini spacecraft collects high resolution images of the saturnian satellites and reveals the surface of these new worlds. The shape and rotation of the satellites can be determined from the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem data,…
The viscous spreading of planetary rings is believed to be counteracted by satellite torques, either through an individual resonance or through overlapping resonances. For the A ring of Saturn, it has been commonly believed that the…
Tidal interactions between Saturn and its satellites play a crucial role in both the orbital migration of the satellites and the heating of their interiors. Therefore constraining the tidal dissipation of Saturn (here the ratio k2/Q) opens…
We describe a model that accounts for the complex morphology of spiral density waves raised in Saturn's rings by the co-orbital satellites, Janus and Epimetheus. Our model may be corroborated by future Cassini observations of these…
We compare the dynamics of satellite galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to simple models in order to test the hypothesis that a large fraction of satellites co-rotate in coherent planes. We confirm the previously-reported excess of…
Popular science article associated with the work `On the co-orbital motion in the three-body problem: existence of quasi-periodic horseshoe-shaped orbits" (arXiv:1806.07262) from the same authors. Janus and Epimetheus are two moons of…
The five libration points of a sun-planet system are stable or unstable fixed positions at which satellites or asteroids can remain fixed relative to the two orbiting bodies. A moon orbiting around the planet causes a time-dependent…
We investigate the angular and kinematic distributions of satellite galaxies around a large sample of bright isolated primaries in the spectroscopic and photometric catalogues of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We detect significant…
We consider Earth satellite orbits in the range of semi-major axes where the perturbing effects of Earth's oblateness and lunisolar gravity are of comparable order. This range covers the medium-Earth orbits (MEO) of the Global Navigation…
Scattered disk objects (SDOs) are distant minor bodies that orbit the sun on highly eccentric orbits, frequently with perhelia near Neptune's orbit. Gravitational perturbations due to Neptune frequently lead to chaotic dynamics, with the…
We analyze several thousand Cassini ISS images in order to study the inner edge of the Keeler gap in Saturn's outer A ring. We find strong evidence for an m=32 perturbation with a mean amplitude of radial variation of 4.5 km. Phase analysis…