Related papers: Spin-orbit evolution of Mercury revisited
The rotation of Mercury is presently captured in a 3/2 spin-orbit resonance with the orbital mean motion. The capture mechanism is well understood as the result of tidal interactions with the Sun combined with planetary perturbations.…
Mercury is entrapped in a 3:2 resonance: it rotates on its axis three times for every two revolutions it makes around the Sun. It is generally accepted that this is due to the large value of the eccentricity of its orbit. However, 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…
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…
Mercury is the unique known planet that is situated in a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance nowadays. Observations and models converge to the same conclusion: the planet is presently deeply trapped in the resonance and situated at the Cassini state…
The objective of this paper is to study the tidally locked 3:2 spin-orbit resonance of Mercury around the Sun. In order to achieve this goal, the effective potential energy that determines the spinning motion of an ellipsoidal planet around…
The 3:2 spin-orbit resonance between the rotational and orbital motions of Mercury results from a functional dependance on a tidal friction adding to a non-zero eccentricity with a permanent asymmetry in the equatorial plane of the planet.…
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 present obliquity of Mercury is very low (less than 0.1 degree), which led previous studies to always adopt a nearly zero obliquity during the planet's past evolution. However, the initial orientation of Mercury's rotation axis is…
The upcoming space missions, MESSENGER and BepiColombo with onboard instrumentation capable of measuring the rotational parameters stimulate the objective to reach an accurate theory of the rotational motion of Mercury. For obtaining the…
If the Moon's spin evolved from faster prograde rates, it could have been captured into a higher spin-orbit resonance than the current 1:1 resonance. At the current value of orbital eccentricity, the probability of capture into the 3:2…
We investigate the spin behavior of close-in rocky planets and the implications for their orbital evolution. Considering that the planet rotation evolves under simultaneous actions of the torque due to the equatorial deformation and the…
We analyze radio tracking data obtained during 1311 orbits of the MESSENGER spacecraft in the period March 2011 to April 2014. A least-squares minimization of the residuals between observed and computed values of two-way range and Doppler…
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…
Recent works suggest that, in multiplanetary systems, a close-in exoplanet can sometimes avoid becoming tidally locked to its host star if it is captured into a secular spin-orbit resonance with a companion planet. In such a resonance, the…
We perform numerical simulations of the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven exoplanets orbiting a nearby M dwarf, starting with a previously suggested stable configuration. The long-term stability of this configuration is confirmed, but the motion…
Spin-orbit coupling is often described in the "MacDonald torque" approach which has become the textbook standard. Within this method, a concise expression for the additional tidal potential, derived by MacDonald (1964; Rev. Geophys. 2,…
This HDR-thesis is devoted to the study of the rotation of the natural satellites of the giant planets and of Mercury. These bodies have a resonant rotation. Most of the natural satellites rotate synchronously, showing the same hemisphere…
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…
The differential migration of two planets due to planet-disk interaction can result in capture into the 2:1 eccentricity-type mean-motion resonances. Both the sequence of 2:1 eccentricity resonances that the system is driven through by…