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COSMIC Orbital Resonance
COSMIC Orbital Resonance
COSMIC Orbital Resonance
In celestial mechanics, an orbital resonance occurs when two orbiting bodies exert a regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually due to their orbital periods being related by a ratio of two small integers. Orbital resonances greatly enhance the mutual gravitational influence of the bodies, i.e., their ability to alter or constrain each others' orbits. In most cases, this results in an unstable interaction, in which the bodies exchange momentum and shift orbits until the resonance no longer exists. Under some circumstances, a resonant system can be stable and self correcting, so that the bodies remain in resonance. Examples are the 1:2:4 resonance of Jupiter's moons Ganymede, Europa and Io, and the 2:3 resonance between Pluto and Neptune. Unstable resonances with Saturn's inner moons give rise to gaps in the rings of Saturn. The special case of 1:1 resonance (between bodies with similar orbital radii) causes large Solar System bodies to eject most other bodies sharing their orbits; this is part of the much more extensive process of clearing the neighbourhood, an effect that is used in the current definition of a planet. Except as noted in the Laplace resonance figure (below), a resonance ratio in this article should be interpreted as the ratio of number of orbits completed in the same time interval, rather than as the ratio of orbital periods (which would be the inverse ratio). The 2:3 ratio above means Pluto completes 2 orbits in the time it takes Neptune to complete 3.
Contents
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1 History 2 Types of resonance 3 Mean motion resonances in the Solar System o 3.1 The Laplace resonance o 3.2 Pluto resonances 4 Coincidental 'near' ratios of mean motion 5 Possible past mean motion resonances 6 See also 7 References and notes 8 External links
[edit] History
Since the discovery of Newton's law of universal gravitation in the 17th century, the stability of the solar system has preoccupied many mathematicians, starting with Laplace. The stable orbits that arise in a two-body approximation ignore the influence of other
bodies. The effect of these added interactions on the stability of the Solar System is very small, but at first it was not known whether they might add up over longer periods to significantly change the orbital parameters and lead to a completely different configuration, or whether some other stabilising effects might maintain the configuration of the orbits of the planets. It was Laplace who found the first answers explaining the remarkable dance of the Galilean moons (see below). It is fair to say that this general field of study has remained very active since then, with plenty more yet to be understood (e.g. how interactions of moonlets with particles of the rings of giant planets result in maintaining the rings).
involve one or any combination of the orbit parameters (e.g. eccentricity versus semimajor axis, or eccentricity versus orbit inclination). act on any time scale from short term, commensurable with the orbit periods, to secular, measured in 104 to 106 years. lead to either long term stabilization of the orbits or be the cause of their destabilization.
A mean motion orbital resonance occurs when two bodies have periods of revolution that are a simple integer ratio of each other. Depending on the details, this can either stabilize or destabilize the orbit. Stabilization occurs when the two bodies move in such a synchronised fashion that they never closely approach. For instance:
The orbits of Pluto and the plutinos are stable, despite crossing that of much larger Neptune, because they are in a 2:3 resonance with it. The resonance ensures that, when they approach perihelion and Neptune's orbit, Neptune is consistently distant (averaging a quarter of its orbit away). Other (much more numerous) Neptune-crossing bodies that were not in resonance were ejected from that region by strong perturbations due to Neptune. There are also smaller but significant groups of resonant trans-Neptunian objects occupying the 1:1 (Neptune trojans), 3:5, 4:7, 1:2 (twotinos) and 2:5 resonances with respect to Neptune. In the asteroid belt beyond 3.5 AU from the Sun, the 3:2, 4:3 and 1:1 resonances with Jupiter are populated by clumps of asteroids (the Hilda family, 279 Thule, and the Trojan asteroids, respectively).
Orbital resonances can also destabilize one of the orbits. For small bodies, destabilization is actually far more likely. For instance:
In the asteroid belt within 3.5 AU from the Sun, the major mean-motion resonances with Jupiter are locations of gaps in the asteroid distribution, the Kirkwood gaps (most notably at the 3:1, 5:2, 7:3 and 2:1 resonances). Asteroids have been ejected from these almost empty lanes by repeated perturbations.
However, there are still populations of asteroids temporarily present in or near these resonances. For example, asteroids of the Alinda family are in or close to the 3:1 resonance, with their orbital eccentricity steadily increased by interactions with Jupiter until they eventually have a close encounter with an inner planet that ejects them from the resonance. In the rings of Saturn, the Cassini Division is a gap between the inner B Ring and the outer A Ring that has been cleared by a 2:1 resonance with the moon Mimas. (More specifically, the site of the resonance is the Huygens Gap, which bounds the outer edge of the B Ring.) In the rings of Saturn, the Encke and Keeler gaps within the A Ring are cleared by 1:1 resonances with the embedded moonlets Pan and Daphnis, respectively. The A Ring's outer edge is maintained by a destabilizing 7:6 resonance with the moon Janus.
A Laplace resonance occurs when three or more orbiting bodies have a simple integer ratio between their orbital periods. For example, Jupiter's moons Ganymede, Europa and Io are in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance. The extrasolar planets Gliese 876e, Gliese 876b and Gliese 876c are also in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance (with periods of 124.3, 61.1 and 30.0 days).[1][2] A Lindblad resonance drives spiral density waves both in galaxies (where stars are subject to forcing by the spiral arms themselves) and in Saturn's rings (where ring particles are subject to forcing by Saturn's moons). A secular resonance occurs when the precession of two orbits is synchronised (usually a precession of the perihelion or ascending node). A small body in secular resonance with a much larger one (e.g. a planet) will precess at the same rate as the large body. Over long times (a million years, or so) a secular resonance will change the eccentricity and inclination of the small body. Several prominent examples of secular resonance involve Saturn. A resonance between the precession of Saturn's rotational axis and that of Neptune's orbital axis (both of which have periods of about 1.87 million years) has been identified as the likely source of Saturn's large axial tilt (26.7).[3][4][5] Initially, Saturn probably had a tilt closer to that of Jupiter (3.1). The gradual depletion of the Kuiper belt would have decreased the precession rate of Neptune's orbit; eventually, the frequencies matched, and Saturn's axial precession was captured into the spin-orbit resonance, leading to an increase in Saturn's obliquity. (The angular momentum of Neptune's orbit is 104 times that of that of Saturn's spin, and thus dominates the interaction.) The 6[clarification needed] secular resonance between asteroids and Saturn helps shape the asteroid belt. Asteroids which approach it have their eccentricity slowly increased until they become Mars-crossers, at which point they are usually ejected from the asteroid belt by a close pass to Mars. This resonance forms the inner and "side" boundaries of the main asteroid belt around 2 AU, and at inclinations of about 20.
The Titan Ringlet within Saturn's C Ring exemplifies another type of resonance in which the rate of apsidal precession of one orbit exactly matches the speed of revolution of another. The outer end of this eccentric ringlet always points towards Saturn's major moon Titan. A Kozai resonance occurs when the inclination and eccentricity of a perturbed orbit oscillate synchronously (increasing eccentricity while decreasing inclination and vice versa). This resonance applies only to bodies on highly inclined orbits; as a consequence, such orbits tend to be unstable, since the growing eccentricity would result in small pericenters, typically leading to a collision or (for large moons) destruction by tidal forces.
The Laplace resonance exhibited by three of the Galilean moons. The ratios in the figure are of orbital periods. There are only a few known mean motion resonances in the Solar System involving planets, dwarf planets or larger satellites (a much greater number involve asteroids, smaller Kuiper belt objects, planetary rings and moonlets).
2:3 Pluto-Neptune 2:4 Tethys-Mimas (Saturns moons) 1:2 Dione-Enceladus (Saturns moons) 3:4 Hyperion-Titan (Saturn's moons) 1:2:4 Ganymede-Europa-Io (Jupiters moons).
The simple integer ratios between periods are a convenient simplification hiding more complex relations:
the point of conjunction can oscillate (librate) around an equilibrium point defined by the resonance.
given non-zero eccentricities, the nodes or periapsides can drift (a resonance related, short period, not secular precession).
As illustration of the latter, consider the well known 2:1 resonance of Io-Europa. If the orbiting periods were in this relation, the mean motions (inverse of periods, often expressed in degrees per day) would satisfy the following
Substituting the data (from Wikipedia) one will get 0.7395 day1, a value substantially different from zero! Actually, the resonance is perfect but it involves also the precession of perijove (the point closest to Jupiter), . The correct equation (part of the Laplace equations) is:
In other words, the mean motion of Io is indeed double of that of Europa taking into account the precession of the perijove. An observer sitting on the (drifting) perijove will see the moons coming into conjunction in the same place (elongation). The other pairs listed above satisfy the same type of equation with the exception of Mimas-Tethys resonance. In this case, the resonance satisfies the equation
The point of conjunctions librates around the midpoint between the nodes of the two moons.
Illustration of Io-Europa-Ganymede resonance. From the centre outwards: Io (yellow), Europa (gray) and Ganymede (dark) The most remarkable resonance involving Io-Europa-Ganymede includes the following relation locking the orbital phase of the moons:
where are mean longitudes of the moons. This relation makes a triple conjunction impossible. The graph illustrates the positions of the moons after 1, 2 and 3 Io periods.
(The Laplace resonance in the Gliese 876 system, in contrast, is associated with one triple conjunction per orbit of the outermost planet.[2])
A mean motion resonance of 2:3 The resonance of the perihelion (libration around 90), keeping the perihelion above the ecliptic The resonance of the longitude of the perihelion in relation to that of Neptune
One consequence of these resonances is that a separation of at least 30 AU is maintained when Pluto crosses Neptune's orbit. The minimum separation between the two bodies overall is 17 AU, while the minimum separation between Pluto and Uranus is just 11 AU[6] (see Pluto's orbit for detailed explanation and graphs). The next largest body in a similar 2:3 resonance with Neptune is the candidate dwarf planet Orcus. Orcus has an orbit similar in inclination and eccentricity to Pluto's. However, the two are constrained by their mutual resonance with Neptune to always be in opposite phases of their orbits; Orcus is thus sometimes described as the "anti-Pluto".[7]
Mismatch after one Randomization cycle[8] time[9] Planets (9:23) Venus Mercury 4.0 200 y (8:13) Earth Venus 1.5 1000 y (243:395) Earth Venus 0.8 50,000 y (1:3) Mars Venus 20.6 20 y (1:2) Mars Earth 42.9 8y (1:12) Jupiter Earth 49.1 40 y [11] (2:5) Saturn Jupiter 12.8 800 y (1:7) Uranus Jupiter 31.1 500 y (7:20) Uranus Saturn 5.7 20,000 y (5:28) Neptune Saturn 1.9 80,000 y (1:2) Neptune Uranus 14.0 2000 y Mars System (1:4) Deimos Phobos 14.9 0.04 y Jupiter System (3:7) Callisto 0.7 30 y Ganymede Saturn System (2:3) Enceladus 33.2 0.04 y Mimas (2:3) Dione Tethys 36.2 0.07 y (3:5) Rhea Dione 17.1 0.4 y (2:7) Titan Rhea 21.0 0.7 y (1:5) Iapetus Titan 9.2 4.0 y Uranus System (1:3) Umbriel Miranda 24.5 0.08 y (3:5) Umbriel Ariel 24.2 0.3 y (1:2) Titania Umbriel 36.3 0.1 y (2:3) Oberon Titania 33.4 0.4 y Pluto System (1:4) Nix Charon 39.1 0.3 y (1:5) P4 Charon ? ? (1:6) Hydra Charon 6.6 3.0 y (Ratio) and Bodies
Probability[10] 0.19 0.065 0.68 0.11 0.24 0.27 0.14 0.17 0.20 0.052 0.078 0.083 0.012
0.33 0.36 0.26 0.22 0.051 0.14 0.35 0.20 0.34 0.22 ? 0.037
The most remarkable (least probable) orbital correlation in the list is that between Callisto and Ganymede, followed in second place by that between Hydra and Charon. The two near resonances listed for Earth and Venus are reflected in the timing of transits of Venus, which occur in pairs 8 years apart, in a cycle that repeats every 243 years.
The near 1:12 resonance between Jupiter and Earth causes the Alinda asteroids, which occupy (or are close to) the 3:1 resonance with Jupiter, to be close to a 1:4 resonance with Earth.
Ariel resonances may have led to tidal heating of the interiors of Miranda and Ariel,[16] respectively. Miranda probably escaped from its resonance with Umbriel via a secondary resonance, and the mechanism of this escape is believed to explain why its orbital inclination is more than 10 times those of the other regular Uranian moons (see Uranus' natural satellites).[17][18] In the case of Pluto's satellites, it has been proposed that the present near resonances are relics of a previous precise resonance that was disrupted by tidal damping of the eccentricity of Charon's orbit (see Pluto's natural satellites for details). The near resonances may be maintained by a 15% local fluctuation in the Pluto-Charon gravitational field. Thus, these near resonances may not be coincidental. Plutoid Haumea's smaller inner moon Namaka is a tenth the mass of Hiiaka, orbiting Haumea in 18 days in a highly elliptical, non-Keplerian orbit, and as of 2008 is inclined 13 from the larger moon, which perturbs its orbit.[19] Over the timescale of the system, it should have been tidally damped into a more circular orbit. It appears that it has been disturbed by resonances with the more massive Hiiaka, due to converging orbits as it moved outward from Haumea because of tidal dissipation. The moons may have been caught in and then escaped from orbital resonance several times; they currently are in or at least close to an 8:3 resonance. This strongly perturbs Namaka's orbit, with a current precession of ~20.
3753 Cruithne, an asteroid in approximate 1:1 orbital resonance with the Earth Resonant trans-Neptunian object Commensurability (astronomy) Kozai resonance Dermott's Law Lagrangian points Mercury, which has a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance Tidal locking Tidal resonance Titius-Bode law Trojan object, a body in a type of 1:1 resonance Horseshoe orbit, followed by an object in another type of 1:1 resonance Musica universalis ("music of the spheres")
Cis-Neptunian objects
o o
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Resonant SDOs
In astronomy, a resonant trans-Neptunian object is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) in mean motion orbital resonance with Neptune. The orbital periods of the resonant objects are in a simple integer relations with the period of Neptune e.g. 1:2, 2:3 etc. Resonant TNOs can be either part of the main Kuiper belt population, or the more distant scattered disc population.[1]
Contents
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1 Distribution 2 Origin 3 Known populations o 3.1 2:3 resonance ("plutinos", period ~250 years) o 3.2 3:5 resonance (period ~275 years) o 3.3 4:7 resonance (period ~290 years) o 3.4 1:2 resonance ("twotinos", period ~330 years) o 3.5 2:5 resonance (period ~410 years) o 3.6 Other resonances o 3.7 1:1 resonance (Neptune trojans, period ~165 years) 4 Coincidental vs true resonances 5 Toward a formal definition 6 Classification methods
[edit] Distribution
Distribution of trans-Neptunian Objects. Resonant objects in red. The diagram illustrates the distribution of the known trans-Neptunian objects (up to 70 AU) in relation to the orbits of the planets together with centaurs for reference. Resonant objects are plotted in red. Orbital resonances with Neptune are marked with vertical bars; 1:1 marks the position of Neptunes orbit (and its trojans), 2:3 marks the orbit of Pluto and plutinos, 1:2, 2:5 etc. a number of smaller families). The designation 2:3 or 3:2 refer both to the same resonance for TNOs. Theres no confusion possible as TNOs, by definition, have periods longer than Neptune. The usage depends on the author and the field of research. The statement "Pluto is in 2:3 resonance to Neptune" appears better to capture the meaning: Pluto completes 2 orbits for every 3 orbits of Neptune.
[edit] Origin
For details of the evolution of Neptune's orbit, see Nice model. Detailed analytical and numerical studies[2][3] of Neptunes resonances have shown that they are quite "narrow" (i.e. the objects must have a relatively precise range of energy). If the object semi-major axis is outside these narrow ranges, the orbit becomes chaotic, with widely changing orbital elements. As TNOs were discovered, a substantial (more than 10%) proportion were found to be in 2:3 resonances, far from a random distribution. It is now believed that the objects have
been collected from wider distances by sweeping resonances during the migration of Neptune.[4] Well before the discovery of the first TNO, it was suggested that interaction between giant planets and a massive disk of small particles would, via momentum transfer, make Jupiter migrate inwards while Saturn, Uranus and especially Neptune would migrate outwards. During this relatively short period of time, Neptunes resonances would be sweeping the space, trapping objects on initially-varying heliocentric orbits into resonance.[5]
The motion of Orcus in a rotating frame with a period equal to Neptune's orbital period. (Neptune is held stationary.)
Pluto and its moons (top) compared in size, albedo and colour with Orcus and Ixion. The 2:3 resonance at 39.4 AU is by far the dominant category among the resonant objects, with 92 confirmed and 104 possible member bodies.[6] The objects following orbits in this resonance are named plutinos after Pluto, the first such body discovered. Large, numbered plutinos include:[7]
1999 CD158, the largest (119956) 2002 PA149 (119070) 2001 KP77 (118378) 1999 HT11 (118698) 2000 OY51
(119979) 2002 WC19 (26308) 1998 SM165 (137295) 1999 RB216 (20161) 1996 TR66 (130391) 2000 JG81
(84522) 2002 TC302, a large dwarf-planet candidate (143707) 2003UY117 (119068) 2001 KC77 (135571) 2002GG32 (69988) 1998 WA31
The nominal 7:12 libration of Haumea in a rotating frame. Where red turns to green is where it crosses the ecliptic.
So called higher-order resonances are known for a limited number of objects, including the following numbered objects[7]
4:5 (35 AU, ~205 years) (131697) 2001 XH255 3:4 (36.5 AU, ~220 years) (143685) 2003 SS317, (15836) 1995 DA2 5:9 (44.5 AU, ~295 years) 2002 GD32[10] 4:9 (52 AU, ~370 years) (42301) 2001 UR163, (182397) 2001 QW297[11] 3:7 (53 AU, ~385 years) (131696) 2001 XT254, (95625) 2002 GX32, (183964) 2004 DJ71, (181867) 1999 CV118 5:12 (55 AU, ~395 years) (79978) 1999 CC158, (119878) 2001 CY224[12] (84% probability according to Emelyanenko) 3:8 (57 AU, ~440 years) (82075) 2000 YW134[13] (84% probability according to Emelyanenko) 2:7 (70 AU, ~580 years) 2006 HX122[14] (The preliminary orbit suggests a weak 2:7 resonance. Further observations will be required.)
1:3 (62.5 AU, ~495 years) (136120) 2003 LG7 1:4 (76 AU, ~660 years) 2003 LA7[15] 1:5 (88 AU, ~820 years) 2003 YQ179 (likely coincidental)[16]
Some notable unproven (they could be coincidental) dwarf planet resonances include:
7:12 (43 AU, ~283 years) Haumea[17] (nominal orbit very likely in resonance) 6:11 (45 AU, ~302 years) Makemake[18] ((182294) 2001 KU76 appears to be in the 6:11 resonance) 3:10 (67 AU, ~549 years) (225088) 2007 OR10 (based on a very preliminary orbit) 5:17 (67 AU, ~560 years) Eris[18] (2007 OR10 has a similar orbit)
2001 QR322 2004 UP10 2005 TN53 2005 TO74 2006 RJ103 2007 VL305 2008 LC18
2004 KV18
Only the last two objects are near Neptune's L5 Lagrangian point; the others are located in Neptune's L4 region.[19]
The orbital period of 2001 XT254 around the 7:3 (2.333) resonance of Neptune. Emelyanenko and Kiseleva also show that (48639) 1995 TL8 appears to have less than a 1% probability of being in a 7:3 resonance with Neptune, but it does execute circulations near this resonance.[20]
The orbital period of 1995 TL8 missing the 7:3 (2.333) resonance of Neptune.
where p and q are small integers, and N are respectively the mean longitudes of the object and Neptune, but can also involve the longitude of the perihelion and the longitudes of the nodes (see orbital resonance, for elementary examples) An object is a Resonant if for some small integers p,q,n,m,r,s, the argument (angle) defined below is librating (i.e. is bounded)[21]
where the are the longitudes of perihelia and the are the longitudes of the ascending nodes, for Neptune (with subscripts "N") and the resonant object (no subscripts). The term libration denotes here periodic oscillation of the angle around some value and is opposed to circulation where the angle can take all values from 0 to 360. For example, in the case of Pluto, the resonant angle librates around 180 with an amplitude of around 82 degrees, i.e. the angle changes periodically from 180-82 to 180+82. All new plutinos discovered during the Deep Ecliptic Survey proved to be of the type
similar to Pluto's mean motion resonance. More generally, this 2:3 resonance is an example of the resonances p:(p+1) (example 1:2, 2:3, 3:4 etc.) that have proved to lead to stable orbits.[4] Their resonant angle is
In this case, the importance of the resonant angle when the object is at perihelion i.e. then
i.e. gives a measure of the distance of the object's perihelion from Neptune.[4] The object is protected from the perturbation by keeping its perihelion far from Neptune provided librates around an angle far from 0.