Poynting-Robertson effect: ‘Circular’ orbit

Time evolution of the interplanetary dust particle under the action of the solar electromagnetic radiation (Poynting-Robertson effect) is investigated. Evolution of the initially circular orbit in terms of the orbital elements present in the standard equations for their secular changes is considered. It is pointed out that the osculating eccentricity is practically constant during the motion in spite of generally accepted opinion that the standard equations for the secular changes of orbital elements represent time evolution of the osculating elements.     

Effects of random solar-wind variations in the motion of small particles in the solar system

The evolution of the orbit of a small particle affected by regular and irregular components of the solar wind is examined. If the irregularity is taken into account, the pattern of motion may qualitatively change on large time scales, because the general integrals of motion are not conserved. The diffusion along the eccentricity of the orbit is most important. In certain cases, it can lead to the escape of a particle from the solar region. Corresponding numerical estimates are given.     

Motion of dust in mean motion resonances with planets

Effect of stellar electromagnetic radiation on the motion of spherical dust particle in mean motion orbital resonances with a planet is investigated. Planar circular restricted three-body problem with the Poynting–Robertson (P–R) effect yields monotonic secular evolution of eccentricity when the particle is trapped in the resonance. Planar elliptic restricted three-body problem with the P–R effect enables nonmonotonous secular evolution of eccentricity and the evolution of eccentricity is qualitatively consistent with the published results for the complicated case of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with nonspherical dust grain. Thus, it is sufficient to allow either nonzero eccentricity of the planet or nonsphericity of the grain and the orbital evolutions in the resonances are qualitatively equal for the two cases. This holds both for exterior and interior mean motion orbital resonances. Evolutions of argument of perihelion in the planar circular and elliptical restricted three-body problems are shown. Numerical integrations show that an analytic expression for the secular time derivative of the particle’s argument of perihelion does not exist, if only dependence on semimajor axis, eccentricity and argument of perihelion is admitted. Connection between the shift of perihelion and oscillations in secular eccentricity is presented for the planar elliptic restricted three-body problem with the P–R effect. Period of the oscillations corresponds to the period of one revolution of perihelion. Change of optical properties of the spherical grain with the heliocentric distance is also considered. The change of the optical properties: (i) does not have any significant influence on the secular evolution of eccentricity, (ii) causes that the shift of perihelion is mainly in the same direction/orientation as the particle motion around the Sun. The statements hold both for circular and noncircular planetary orbits.     

Long-term evaluation of three-dimensional heliocentric solar sail trajectories with arbitrary fixed sail setting

The solar radiation effects upon the orbital behaviour of an arbitrarily shaped spacecraft (or a solar sail in particular) in a general fixed orientation with respect to the local coordinate frame are investigated. Through introduction of a quasi-angle in the osculating plane, the motion of the orbital plane becomes uncoupled from the in-plane perturbations. Exact solutions in the form of conic sections and logarithmic spirals can readily be formulated for certain specific initial conditions. An effective out-of-plane spiral transfer trajectory is obtained by reversing the force component normal to the orbital plane at specified positions in the orbit. By choosing the appropriate control angles for the sail orientation, any point in space can be reached eventually. In the case of general initial conditions, the long-term orbital behaviour is assessed asymptotically by means of the two-variable expansion procedure. An implicit expression for the eccentricity is derived and explicit results are established by an iteration scheme. The other orbital elements can be expressed in terms of the eccentricity and their asymptotic series for near-circular initial orbits are also obtained. While equations for the higher-order contributions as well as the periodic parts of their solutions can be formulated readily, their secular terms are determined only for a circular initial orbit.     

Perturbation equations of celestial mechanics

Perturbation equations of celestial mechanics in terms of orbital elements are completely derived in application to the motion of interplanetary dust particle in the gravational field of the Sun and under the action of disturbing forces. Consideration of change of mass of interplanetary dust particle is the most important feature of this derivation. The results obtained are completely general in the case of constant masses.     

Chaotic zone boundary for low free eccentricity particles near an eccentric planet

We consider particles with low free or proper eccentricity that are orbiting near planets on eccentric orbits. Through collisionless particle integration, we numerically find the location of the boundary of the chaotic zone in the planet's corotation region. We find that the distance in semimajor axis between the planet and boundary depends on the planet mass to the 2/7 power and is independent of the planet eccentricity, at least for planet eccentricities below 0.3. Our integrations reveal a similarity between the dynamics of particles at zero eccentricity near a planet in a circular orbit and with zero free eccentricity particles near an eccentric planet. The 2/7th law has been previously explained by estimating the semimajor at which the first-order mean motion resonances are large enough to overlap. Orbital dynamics near an eccentric planet could differ due to first-order corotation resonances that have strength proportional to the planet's eccentricity. However, we find that the corotation resonance width at low free eccentricity is small; also the first-order resonance width at zero free eccentricity is the same as that for a zero-eccentricity particle near a planet in a circular orbit. This accounts for insensitivity of the chaotic zone width to planet eccentricity. Particles at zero free eccentricity near an eccentric planet have similar dynamics to those at zero eccentricity near a planet in a circular orbit.     

Lunar perturbations of artificial satellites of the earth

Lunisolar perturbations of an artificial satellite for general terms of the disturbing function were derived by Kaula (1962). However, his formulas use equatorial elements for the Moon and do not give a definite algorithm for computational procedures. As Kozai (1966, 1973) noted, both inclination and node of the Moon's orbit with respect to the equator of the Earth are not simple functions of time, while the same elements with respect to the ecliptic are well approximated by a constant and a linear function of time, respectively. In the present work, we obtain the disturbing function for the Lunar perturbations using ecliptic elements for the Moon and equatorial elements for the satellite. Secular, long-period, and short-period perturbations are then computed, with the expressions kept in closed form in both inclination and eccentricity of the satellite. Alternative expressions for short-period perturbations of high satellites are also given, assuming small values of the eccentricity. The Moon's position is specified by the inclination, node, argument of perigee, true (or mean) longitude, and its radius vector from the center of the Earth. We can then apply the results to numerical integration by using coordinates of the Moon from ephemeris tapes or to analytical representation by using results from lunar theory, with the Moon's motion represented by a precessing and rotating elliptical orbit.     

Quasi-satellite orbits in the general context of dynamics in the 1:1 mean motion resonance: perturbative treatment

Our investigation is motivated by the recent discovery of asteroids orbiting the Sun and simultaneously staying near one of the Solar System planets for a long time. This regime of motion is usually called the quasi-satellite regime, since even at the times of the closest approaches the distance between the asteroid and the planet is significantly larger than the region of space (the Hill’s sphere) in which the planet can hold its satellites. We explore the properties of the quasi-satellite regimes in the context of the spatial restricted circular three-body problem “Sun–planet–asteroid”. Via double numerical averaging, we construct evolutionary equations which describe the long-term behaviour of the orbital elements of an asteroid. Special attention is paid to possible transitions between the motion in a quasi-satellite orbit and the one in another type of orbits available in the 1:1 resonance. A rough classification of the corresponding evolutionary paths is given for an asteroid’s motion with a sufficiently small eccentricity and inclination.     

Interplanetary dust particles and solar radiation

The problem of the action of the solar radiation on the motion of interplanetary dust particle is discussed. Differences between the action of electromagnetic solar radiation and that of the solar wind are explained not only from the point of view of the physical nature of these phenomena but also from the point of view of dust particle's orbital evolution. As for the electromagnetic solar radiation, general equation of motion for the particle is written and the most important consequences are: (i) the process of inspiralling toward the Sun is not the only possible motion - even spiralling from the Sun is also possible, and, (ii) the orbital plane of the particle (its inclination) may change in time. As for the solar wind, the effect corresponding to the fact that solar wind particles spread out from the Sun in nonradial direction causes that the process of inspiralling toward the Sun is in more than 50% less effective than for radial spread out; in the region of the asteroid belt (long period orbits) the process of inspiralling is changed into offspiralling. Also shift in the perihelion of dust particle's orbit exists.     

Temporal variation of the zodiacal dust cloud

A Markov chain model is constructed to investigate fluctuations in the mass of the zodiacal cloud. The cloud is specified by a three-dimensional grid, each element of which contains the numbers of dust particles as a function of semimajor axis, eccentricity and mass. The evolutionary pathways of dust particles owing to radiation pressure are described by fixed transition probabilities connecting the grid elements. Other elements are absorbing states representing infall to the Sun or ejection to infinity: particles entering these states are removed from the system. Particles are injected through the breakup of comets entering short-period, high-eccentricity orbits at random times, and are subject to the PoyntingRobertson effect and removal through collisional disintegration and radiation pressure. The main conclusions are that the cometary component of the zodiacal cloud is highly variable, and that in the wake of giant comet entry into a short-period, near-Earth orbit, the dust influx to the Earth's atmosphere may acquire a climatically significant optical depth.     

Motion of dust particles under the influence of a latitudinally dependent force

The Kelperian motion of dust particles in the solar system is mainly influenced by the electromagnetic and plasma Poynting-Robertson drag. The first force is isotropic while the second one shows latitudinal variations due to the observed differences of the solar wind parameters in the ecliptic plane and over the solar poles. Close to the Sun other effects become important, e.g. sublimation and sputtering, as well as for submicron particles Lorentz scattering has to be taken into account. These forces are very weak for dust grains of moderate size (10–100 µ) not too close (>0.03 AU) to the Sun and are neglected here. Assuming that the general form of the latidudinally dependent force is a series expansion in Legendre polynomials, we have studied the averaged equations of motion for the classical elements and found the first integral of them. The general character of motion is the same as for the classical Poynting-Robertson drag: particles spiral towards the Sun. The new features in the orbital evolution under the latitudinally dependent force as compared with the isotropic Poynting-Robertson drag are:

1. not only the semimajor axisa and the eccentricity ε but also the argument of the perihelion ω varies with time,
2. the rate of change ofa, ε, ω depends on the inclination.

An example of particle trajectories in the phase space of elements is presented.     

Improved equations for eccentricity generation in hierarchical triple systems

In a series of papers, we developed a technique for estimating the inner eccentricity in hierarchical triple systems, with the inner orbit being initially circular. However, for certain combinations of the masses and the orbital elements, the secular part of the solution failed. In this paper, we derive a new solution for the secular part of the inner eccentricity, which corrects the previous weakness. The derivation applies to hierarchical triple systems with coplanar and initially circular orbits. The new formula is tested numerically by integrating the full equations of motion for systems with mass ratios from 10⁻³ to 10³. We also present more numerical results for short-term eccentricity evolution, in order to get a better picture of the behaviour of the inner eccentricity.     

On the co-orbital motion in the planar restricted three-body problem: the quasi-satellite motion revisited

In the framework of the planar and circular restricted three-body problem, we consider an asteroid that orbits the Sun in quasi-satellite motion with a planet. A quasi-satellite trajectory is a heliocentric orbit in co-orbital resonance with the planet, characterized by a nonzero eccentricity and a resonant angle that librates around zero. Likewise, in the rotating frame with the planet, it describes the same trajectory as the one of a retrograde satellite even though the planet acts as a perturbator. In the last few years, the discoveries of asteroids in this type of motion made the term “quasi-satellite” more and more present in the literature. However, some authors rather use the term “retrograde satellite” when referring to this kind of motion in the studies of the restricted problem in the rotating frame. In this paper, we intend to clarify the terminology to use, in order to bridge the gap between the perturbative co-orbital point of view and the more general approach in the rotating frame. Through a numerical exploration of the co-orbital phase space, we describe the quasi-satellite domain and highlight that it is not reachable by low eccentricities by averaging process. We will show that the quasi-satellite domain is effectively included in the domain of the retrograde satellites and neatly defined in terms of frequencies. Eventually, we highlight a remarkable high eccentric quasi-satellite orbit corresponding to a frozen ellipse in the heliocentric frame. We extend this result to the eccentric case (planet on an eccentric motion) and show that two families of frozen ellipses originate from this remarkable orbit.     

Eccentricity evolution in hierarchical triple systems with eccentric outer binaries

We develop a technique for estimating the inner eccentricity in hierarchical triple systems, with the inner orbit being initially circular, while the outer one is eccentric. We consider coplanar systems with well-separated components and comparable masses. The derivation of short-period terms is based on an expansion of the rate of change of the Runge–Lenz vector. Then, the short-period terms are combined with secular terms, obtained by means of canonical perturbation theory. The validity of the theoretical equations is tested by numerical integrations of the full equations of motion.     

Motion of Pasiphae’s perijove and node

We investigated the motion of the perijove and ascending node of the 8th satellite of Jupiter, Pasiphae. The main perturbations by the Sun on the satellite permitted to use an intermediate orbit obtained by approximated solutions of differential equations previously transformed by the Von Zeipel method. The orbit is a non-Keplerian ellipse. The secular motion of the ascending node, argument of perijove, and essential periodic perturbations were taken into account. Using our theory we showed that the inclination and eccentricity of Pasiphae can acquire values by which the orbit becomes a librating one; but, within Pasiphae’s observation period, the motion of its perijove is circulating. Taking into account the results of our previous works on Pasiphae motion, we can conclude that the mean motion of the ascending node is similar for different values of the satellite inclination and eccentricity. But the mean motion of the perijove strongly depends on the orbit inclination and eccentricity, according to the Lidov–Kozai mechanism.     

General relativity and satellite orbits: The motion of a test particle in the Schwarzschild metric

The motion of a satellite with negligible mass in the Schwarzschild metric is treated as a problem in Newtonian physics. The relativistic equations of motion are formally identical with those of the Newtonian case of a particle moving in the ordinary inverse-square law field acted upon by a disturbing function which varies asr ^?3. Accordingly, the relativistic motion is treated with the methods of celestial mechanics. The disturbing function is expressed in terms of the Keplerian elements of the orbit and substituted into Lagrange's planetary equations. Integration of the equations shows that a typical Earth satellite with small orbital eccentricity is displaced by about 17 cm from its unperturbed position after a single orbit, while the periodic displacement over the orbit reaches a maximum of about 3 cm. Application of the equations to the planet Mercury gives the advance of the perihelion and a total displacement of about 85 km after one orbit, with a maximum periodic displacement of about 13 km.     

The circular restricted three-body problem in curvilinear coordinates

We derive the exact equations of motion for the circular restricted three-body problem in cylindrical curvilinear coordinates together with a number of useful analytical relations linking curvilinear coordinates and classical orbital elements. The equations of motion can be seen as a generalization of Hill’s problem after including all neglected nonlinear terms. As an application of the method, we obtain a new expression for the averaged third-body disturbing function including eccentricity and inclination terms. We employ the latter to study the dynamics of the guiding center for the problem of circular coorbital motion providing an extension of some results in the literature.     

Models of Motion in a Central Force Field with Quadratic Drag

Some general properties for the motion of a particle in a central force field with a general power law drag are derived. Exact and approximate solutions of the equations of motion are found in various cases. Emphasis is placed on inverse square gravitation and drag that varies with the square of the speed and inversely with the distance from the center of attraction. For this model two results stand out. The first is a particular solution in closed form that demonstrates the decay of an initially circular orbit under drag. The second, found from an approximation of the equations of motion when the radial speed is small compared with the tangential speed, demonstrates the decay of an initially elliptic orbit that is not highly eccentric. Formulas for calculation of the time of flight are presented for the two principal results.     

Generalized Lagrangian orbital elements for central force problems

We consider the definitions and resulting equations of motion for the Lagrangian orbital elements associated with conventional osculating orbit theory for central forces. The analysis indicates that the definitions themselves lead to difficulties which are most apparent in the circular limit. An alternate set of defining relations is presented which eliminates the problems associated with osculating elements. The remaining equation of motion based on these new definitions is reduced to quadratures. This solution completely expresses the orbits for central force problems with no restriction on the eccentricity. Both bounded and open orbits are considered. A generalized Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector is developed and a number of example solutions are presented.     

The Effect of C22 on Orbit Energy and Angular Momentum

The effect of the C₂₂ gravity field term on a particle is evaluated analytically over one orbit to find the change in orbit energy and angular momentum as an explicit function of the orbital inclination, argument of pericenter, longitude of the ascending node, orbit parameter and eccentricity. Changes in orbit energy and angular momentum are shown to be proportional to a family of integrals which can be parameterized in terms of eccentricity and non-dimensional pericenter radius. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.