Related papers: Trojan capture by terrestrial planets
The irregular satellites of outer planets are thought to have been captured from heliocentric orbits. The exact nature of the capture process, however, remains uncertain. We examine the possibility that irregular satellites were captured…
Co-orbital bodies are the byproduct of planet formation and evolution, as we know from the Solar System. Although planet-size co-orbitals do not exists in our planetary system, dynamical studies show that they can remain stable for long…
Theoretical studies predict that Trojans are likely a frequent byproduct of planet formation and evolution. We present a novel method of detecting Trojan companions to transiting extrasolar planets which involves comparing the time of…
We investigate resonant capture of small bodies by planets that migrate inwards, using analytic arguments and three-body integrations. If the orbits of the planet and the small body are initially circular and coplanar, the small body is…
The Neptune Trojans are the most recently discovered population of small bodies in the Solar System. To date, only eight have been discovered, though it is thought likely that the total population at least rivals that of the asteroid belt.…
Following the general numerical analysis of Melita and Woolfson (1996), I showed in a recent paper that a restricted, planar, circular planetary system consisting of Sun, Jupiter and Saturn would be captured in a near (2:1) resonance when…
(Abridged) Planets are surrounded by fractal surfaces (traditionally called Hill spheres), separating the inner zones of long-term stable orbital motion of their satellites from the outer space where the gravitational pull from the Sun…
A migrating planet can capture planetesimals into mean motion resonances. However, resonant trapping can be prevented when the drift or migration rate is sufficiently high. Using a simple Hamiltonian system for first and second order…
Jovian co-orbitals share Jupiter's orbit in 1:1 mean motion resonance. This includes $>$10,000 so-called Trojan asteroids surrounding the leading (L4) and trailing (L5) Lagrange points, viewed as stable groups dating back to planet…
Theoretical studies predict that Trojans are likely a frequent byproduct of planet formation and evolution. We examine the sensitivity of transit timing observations for detecting Trojan companions to transiting extrasolar planets. We…
The only discovery of Earth Trojan 2010 TK$_7$ and the subsequent launch of OSIRIS-REx motive us to investigate the stability around the triangular Lagrange points $L_4$ and $L_5$ of the Earth. In this paper we present detailed dynamical…
Jupiter Trojan asteroids are located around L4 and L5 Lagrangian points on relatively stable orbits, in 1:1 MMR with Jupiter. However, not all of them lie in orbits that remain stable over the age of the Solar System. Unstable zones allow…
With a total mass similar to the main asteroid belt, the Jovian Trojan asteroids are a major feature in the solar system. Based upon the thermal infrared spectra of the largest Trojans obtained with the Spitzer space telescope, Emery et al.…
We study the spatial circular restricted problem of three bodies in the light of Nekhoroshev theory of stability over large time intervals. We consider in particular the Sun-Jupiter model and the Trojan asteroids in the neighborhood of the…
The number of planetary satellites around solid objects in the inner Solar System is small either because they are difficult or unlikely to form, or that they do not survive for astronomical timescales. Here we conduct a pilot study on the…
Trapping of bodies by waves is extended from electromagnetism to gravity. It is shown that gravitational waves endowed with angular momentum may accumulate near its axis all kinds of cosmic debris. The trapping mechanism in both cases can…
The origins of irregular satellites of the giant planets are an important piece of the giant "puzzle" that is the theory of Solar System formation. It is well established that they are not "in situ" formation objects, around the planet, as…
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…
We study the dynamics of Jupiter Trojans in the early phase of the Solar system while the outer planets migrated due to their interaction with the planetesimal disk.
Trojans are circumstellar bodies that reside in characteristic 1:1 orbital resonances with planets. While all the trojans in our Solar System are small (< ~100 km), stable planet-size trojans may exist in extrasolar planetary systems, and…