Preliminary orbits with line-of-sight correction for LEO satellites observed with radar

We propose a method to account for the Earth oblateness effect in preliminary orbit determination of satellites in low orbits with radar observations. This method is an improvement of the one described in Gronchi et al. (Mon Not R Astron Soc 451(2):1883–1891, 2015b), which uses a pure Keplerian dynamical model. Since the effect of the Earth oblateness is strong at low altitudes, its inclusion in the model can sensibly improve the initial orbit, giving a better starting guess for differential corrections and increasing the chances to obtain their convergence. The input set consists of two tracks of radar observations, each one composed of at least four observations taken during the same pass of the satellite. A single observation gives the topocentric position of the satellite, where the range is very accurate, while the line-of-sight direction is poorly determined. From these data, we can compute by a polynomial fit the values of the range and range rate at the mean epochs of the two tracks. In order to obtain a preliminary orbit, we wish to compute the angular velocity, which is the rate of change of the line of sight. In the same spirit of Gronchi et al. (Mon Not R Astron Soc 451(2):1883–1891, 2015b), we also wish to correct the values of the angular measurements, so that they fit the selected dynamical model if the same holds for the radial distance and velocity. The selected model is a perturbed Keplerian dynamics, where the only perturbation included is the secular effect of the \(J_2\) term of the geopotential.     

Transition between general relativity and quantum gravity using quark and strange quark matter with some kinematical test

Contemporary piece of writing devotes to the investigation of plane symmetric cosmological model with quark and strange quark matter in the deformations of the Einstein’s theory of General Relativity (GR). At small or large scales (ultraviolet or infrared gravity), deformations of the Einstein’s theory could provide a better handling of cosmic acceleration without magnetism (along with singularities). In particular, a proper deformation of GR in the ultraviolet regime could play the role of describing the transition between GR and quantum gravity. As a matter of fact, although with a different purpose in mind, it was Einstein himself who proposed in the 30’s the reformulation of GR by taking the field of orthonormal frames or tetrads as the dynamical variable instead of the metric tensor (Einstein, Phys. Math. Kl 217, 401, 1928). As per the observation, pressure and energy density of the model approaches the bag constant in negative and positive ways at \(t\rightarrow \infty \), i.e. \(p\rightarrow -B_c \) and \(\rho \rightarrow B_c \), the negative pressure due to the Dark Energy (DE) in the context of accelerated expansion of the universe. So the strange quark matter gives an idea of existence of dark energy in the universe and supports the observations of the SNe-I (Riess et al., Astron. J. 116,1009, 1998; Perlmutter et al., Astrophys. J. 517, 565, 1999). Also these results agree with the study of Aktas and Aygun (Chinese J. Phys. 55, 71, 2017) and Sahoo et al. (New. Astron. 60, 80, 2018).     

Secondary resonances and the boundary of effective stability of Trojan motions

One of the most interesting features in the libration domain of co-orbital motions is the existence of secondary resonances. For some combinations of physical parameters, these resonances occupy a large fraction of the domain of stability and rule the dynamics within the stable tadpole region. In this work, we present an application of a recently introduced ‘basic Hamiltonian model’ \(H_\mathrm{b}\) for Trojan dynamics (Páez and Efthymiopoulos in Celest Mech Dyn Astron 121(2):139, 2015; Páez et al. in Celest Mech Dyn Astron 126:519, 2016): we show that the inner border of the secondary resonance of lowermost order, as defined by \(H_\mathrm{b}\), provides a good estimation of the region in phase space for which the orbits remain regular regardless of the orbital parameters of the system. The computation of this boundary is straightforward by combining a resonant normal form calculation in conjunction with an ‘asymmetric expansion’ of the Hamiltonian around the libration points, which speeds up convergence. Applications to the determination of the effective stability domain for exoplanetary Trojans (planet-sized objects or asteroids) which may accompany giant exoplanets are discussed.     

Dynamics of “jumping” Trojans: a perturbative treatment

The term “jumping” Trojan was introduced by Tsiganis et al. (Astron Astrophys 354:1091–1100, 2000) in their studies of long-term dynamics exhibited by the asteroid (1868) Thersites, which had been observed to jump from librations around \(L_4\) to librations around \(L_5\). Another example of a “jumping” Trojan was found by Connors et al. (Nature 475:481–483, 2011): librations of the asteroid 2010 TK7 around the Earth’s libration point \(L_4\) preceded by its librations around \(L_5\). We explore the dynamics of “jumping” Trojans under the scope of the restricted planar elliptical three-body problem. Via double numerical averaging we construct evolutionary equations, which allow analyzing transitions between different regimes of orbital motion.     

Tidal synchronization of close-in satellites and exoplanets. III. Tidal dissipation revisited and application to Enceladus

This paper deals with a new formulation of the creep tide theory (Ferraz-Mello in Celest Mech Dyn Astron 116:109, 2013—Paper I) and with the tidal dissipation predicted by the theory in the case of stiff bodies whose rotation is not synchronous but is oscillating around the synchronous state with a period equal to the orbital period. We show that the tidally forced libration influences the amount of energy dissipated in the body and the average perturbation of the orbital elements. This influence depends on the libration amplitude and is generally neglected in the study of planetary satellites. However, they may be responsible for a 27% increase in the dissipation of Enceladus. The relaxation factor necessary to explain the observed dissipation of Enceladus (\(\gamma =1.2{-}3.8\times 10^{-7}\ \mathrm{s}^{-1}\)) has the expected order of magnitude for planetary satellites and corresponds to the viscosity \(0.6{-}1.9 \times 10^{14}\) Pa s, which is in reasonable agreement with the value recently estimated by Efroimsky (Icarus 300:223, 2018) (\(0.24 \times 10^{14}\) Pa s) and with the value adopted by Roberts and Nimmo (Icarus 194:675, 2008) for the viscosity of the ice shell (\(10^{13}{-}10^{14}\) Pa s). For comparison purposes, the results are extended also to the case of Mimas and are consistent with the negligible dissipation and the absence of observed tectonic activity. The corrections of some mistakes and typos of paper II (Ferraz-Mello in Celest Mech Dyn Astron 122:359, 2015) are included at the end of the paper.     

A viable dark fluid model

We consider a cosmological model based on a generalization of the equation of state proposed by Nojiri and Odintsov (2004) and ?tefan?i? (2005, 2006). We argue that this model works as a dark fluid model which can interpolate between dust equation of state and the dark energy equation of state. We show how the asymptotic behavior of the equation of state constrained the parameters of the model. The causality condition for the model is also studied to constrain the parameters and the fixed points are tested to determine different solution classes. Observations of Hubble diagram of SNe Ia supernovae are used to further constrain the model. We present an exact solution of the model and calculate the luminosity distance and the energy density evolution. We also calculate the deceleration parameter to test the state of the universe expansion.     

The effects of deformation inertia (kinetic energy) in the orbital and spin evolution of close-in bodies

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the effect of deformation inertia on tide dynamics, particularly within the context of the tide response equations proposed independently by Boué et al. (Celest Mech Dyn Astron 126:31–60, 2016) and Ragazzo and Ruiz (Celest Mech Dyn Astron 128(1):19–59, 2017). The singular limit as the inertia tends to zero is analyzed, and equations for the small inertia regime are proposed. The analysis of Love numbers shows that, independently of the rheology, deformation inertia can be neglected if the tide-forcing frequency is much smaller than the frequency of small oscillations of an ideal body made of a perfect (inviscid) fluid with the same inertial and gravitational properties of the original body. Finally, numerical integration of the full set of equations, which couples tide, spin and orbit, is used to evaluate the effect of inertia on the overall motion. The results are consistent with those obtained from the Love number analysis. The conclusion is that, from the point of view of orbital evolution of celestial bodies, deformation inertia can be safely neglected. (Exceptions may occur when a higher-order harmonic of the tide forcing has a high amplitude.)     

Fast numerics for the spin orbit equation with realistic tidal dissipation and constant eccentricity

We present an algorithm for the rapid numerical integration of a time-periodic ODE with a small dissipation term that is \(C^1\) in the velocity. Such an ODE arises as a model of spin–orbit coupling in a star/planet system, and the motivation for devising a fast algorithm for its solution comes from the desire to estimate probability of capture in various solutions, via Monte Carlo simulation: the integration times are very long, since we are interested in phenomena occurring on timescales of the order of \(10^6\)–\(10^7\) years. The proposed algorithm is based on the high-order Euler method which was described in Bartuccelli et al. (Celest Mech Dyn Astron 121(3):233–260, 2015), and it requires computer algebra to set up the code for its implementation. The payoff is an overall increase in speed by a factor of about 7.5 compared to standard numerical methods. Means for accelerating the purely numerical computation are also discussed.     

The exact transformation from spherical harmonic to ellipsoidal harmonic coefficients for gravitational field modeling

The spherical and ellipsoidal harmonic series of the external gravitational potential for a given mass distribution are equivalent in their mutual region of uniform convergence. In an instructive case, the equality of the two series on the common coordinate surface of an infinitely large sphere reveals the exact correspondence between the spherical and ellipsoidal harmonic coefficients. The transformation between the two sets of coefficients can be accomplished via the numerical methods by Walter (Celest Mech 2:389–397, 1970) and Dechambre and Scheeres (Astron Astrophys 387:1114–1122, 2002), respectively. On the other hand, the harmonic coefficients are defined by the integrals of mass density moments in terms of the respective solid harmonics. This paper presents general algebraic formulas for expressing the solid ellipsoidal harmonics as a linear combination of the corresponding solid spherical harmonics. An exact transformation from spherical to ellipsoidal harmonic coefficients is found by incorporating these connecting expressions into the density integral. A computational procedure is proposed for the transformation. Numerical results based on the nearly ellipsoidal Martian moon, Phobos, are presented for validation of the method.     

New UV-source catalogs,UV spectral database,UV variables and science tools from the GALEX surveys

We present a new, expanded and improved catalog of Ultraviolet (UV) sources from the GALEX All-Sky Imaging survey: GUVcat_AIS (Bianchi et al. in Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 230:24, 2017). The catalog includes 83 million unique sources (duplicate measurements and rim artifacts are removed) measured in far-UV and near-UV. With respect to previous versions (Bianchi et al. in Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 411:2770 2011a, Adv. Space Res. 53:900–991, 2014), GUVcat_AIS covers a slightly larger area, 24,790 square degrees, and includes critical corrections and improvements, as well as new tags, in particular to identify sources in the footprint of extended objects, where pipeline source detection may fail and custom-photometry may be necessary. The UV unique-source catalog facilitates studies of density of sources, and matching of the UV samples with databases at other wavelengths.We also present first results from two ongoing projects, addressing respectively UV variability searches on time scales from seconds to years by mining the GALEX photon archive, and the construction of a database of ～120,000 GALEX UV spectra (range ～1300–3000 Å), including quality and calibration assessment and classification of the grism, hence serendipitous, spectral sources.     

15-digit accuracy calculations of Ambartsumian-Chandrasekhar’s $$-functions for four-term phase functions with the double-exponential formula

We have established an iterative scheme to calculate with 15-digit accuracy the numerical values of Ambartsumian-Chandrasekhar’s \(H\)-functions for anisotropic scattering characterized by the four-term phase function: the method incorporates some advantageous features of the iterative procedure of Kawabata (Astrophys. Space Sci. 358:32, 2015) and the double-exponential integration formula (DE-formula) of Takahashi and Mori (Publ. Res. Inst. Math. Sci. Kyoto Univ. 9:721, 1974), which proved highly effective in Kawabata (Astrophys. Space Sci. 361:373, 2016). Actual calculations of the \(H\)-functions have been carried out employing 27 selected cases of the phase function, 56 values of the single scattering albedo \(\varpi_{0}\), and 36 values of an angular variable \(\mu(= \cos\theta)\), with \(\theta\) being the zenith angle specifying the direction of incidence and/or emergence of radiation. Partial results obtained for conservative isotropic scattering, Rayleigh scattering, and anisotropic scattering due to a full four-term phase function are presented. They indicate that it is important to simultaneously verify accuracy of the numerical values of the \(H\)-functions for \(\mu<0.05\), the domain often neglected in tabulation. As a sample application of the isotropic scattering \(H\)-function, an attempt is made in Appendix to simulate by iteratively solving the Ambartsumian equation the values of the plane and spherical albedos of a semi-infinite, homogeneous atmosphere calculated by Rogovtsov and Borovik (J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transf. 183:128, 2016), who employed their analytical representations for these quantities and the single-term and two-term Henyey-Greenstein phase functions of appreciably high degrees of anisotropy. While our results are in satisfactory agreement with theirs, our procedure is in need of a faster algorithm to routinely deal with problems involving highly anisotropic phase functions giving rise to near-conservative scattering.     

Temperature evolution in the presence of anisotropic stresses

In a recent paper by Das et al. (Astrophys. Space Sci. 361:99, 2016) it was shown that the sign of the anisotropy parameter plays a pivotal role in determining the time of formation of the horizon of a collapsing radiating star. Spurred on by this observation we investigate the impact of the (an)isotropy featured in the (Das et al. in Astrophys. Space Sci. 361:99, 2016) collapsing model on the temperature profiles of the evolving system. We show that the temperature within the stellar interior is increased as the anisotropy in the pressure grows. Relaxational effects due to heat dissipation within the core further enhances the temperature at each interior point of the stellar distribution.     

Using GALEX-SDSS-PanSTARRS-HST-Gaia to understand post-AGB evolution

Hot WDs in binary systems with a less evolved star are particularly invaluable astrophysical probes, the unevolved companion enabling better derivation of distance and age than is usually possible for post-AGB objects, and therefore also of their radius and luminosity. But hot white dwarfs (WD) are elusive at all wavelengths except the UV (Bianchi et al. 2011a). From our GALEX UV source catalogs (Bianchi et al. 2011a,b, 2014, 2017) matched to SDSS, we identified thousands of candidate hot WDs including WDs in binary systems consisting of a hot WD and a companion of spectral type from A to M. The identification and preliminary characterization of the stellar parameters is based on the analysis of the photometric SED from far-UV to z-band.We have observed subsamples of the UV-selected WDs with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to better characterize their stellar parameters. We obtained (1) UV spectroscopy with STIS and analyzed the UV spectra together with optical SDSS spectra, and (2) multi-band imaging with WFC3 (\(0.04^{\prime\prime}/\mbox{pixel}\)) to measure angular separation and individual SEDs of the pair’s components in binary systems. In our HST/WFC3 sample of 59 hot-WD binaries with late-type companions, we found that at least a dozen have possibly evolved without exchanging mass. The UV STIS spectroscopy led to the revision of previous results based on optical spectra only, because of the often undetectable or unquantifiable contribution of the hot component to the optical fluxes.     

The eccentric Kozai–Lidov effect as a resonance phenomenon

Exploring weakly perturbed Keplerian motion within the restricted three-body problem, Lidov (Planet Space Sci 9:719–759, 1962) and, independently, Kozai (Astron J 67:591–598, 1962) discovered coupled oscillations of eccentricity and inclination (the KL cycles). Their classical studies were based on an integrable model of the secular evolution, obtained by double averaging of the disturbing function approximated with its first non-trivial term. This was the quadrupole term in the series expansion with respect to the ratio of the semimajor axis of the disturbed body to that of the disturbing body. If the next (octupole) term is kept in the expression for the disturbing function, long-term modulation of the KL cycles can be established (Ford et al. in Astrophys J 535:385–401, 2000; Naoz et al. in Nature 473:187–189, 2011; Katz et al. in Phys Rev Lett 107:181101, 2011). Specifically, flips between the prograde and retrograde orbits become possible. Since such flips are observed only when the perturber has a nonzero eccentricity, the term “eccentric Kozai–Lidov effect” (or EKL effect) was proposed by Lithwick and Naoz (Astrophys J 742:94, 2011) to specify such behavior. We demonstrate that the EKL effect can be interpreted as a resonance phenomenon. To this end, we write down the equations of motion in terms of “action-angle” variables emerging in the integrable Kozai–Lidov model. It turns out that for some initial values the resonance is degenerate and the usual “pendulum” approximation is insufficient to describe the evolution of the resonance phase. Analysis of the related bifurcations allows us to estimate the typical time between the successive flips for different parts of the phase space.     

Free time minimizers for the three-body problem

Free time minimizers of the action (called “semi-static” solutions by Mañe in International congress on dynamical systems in Montevideo (a tribute to Ricardo Mañé), vol 362, pp 120–131, 1996) play a central role in the theory of weak KAM solutions to the Hamilton–Jacobi equation (Fathi in Weak KAM Theorem in Lagrangian Dynamics Preliminary Version Number 10, 2017). We prove that any solution to Newton’s three-body problem which is asymptotic to Lagrange’s parabolic homothetic solution is eventually a free time minimizer. Conversely, we prove that every free time minimizer tends to Lagrange’s solution, provided the mass ratios lie in a certain large open set of mass ratios. We were inspired by the work of Da Luz and Maderna (Math Proc Camb Philos Soc 156:209–227, 1980) which showed that every free time minimizer for the N-body problem is parabolic and therefore must be asymptotic to the set of central configurations. We exclude being asymptotic to Euler’s central configurations by a second variation argument. Central configurations correspond to rest points for the McGehee blown-up dynamics. The large open set of mass ratios are those for which the linearized dynamics at each Euler rest point has a complex eigenvalue.     

New Hamiltonian expansions adapted to the Trojan problem

A number of studies, referring to the observed Trojan asteroids of various planets in our Solar System, or to hypothetical Trojan bodies in extrasolar planetary systems, have emphasized the importance of so-called secondary resonances in the problem of the long term stability of Trojan motions. Such resonances describe commensurabilities between the fast, synodic, and secular frequency of the Trojan body, and, possibly, additional slow frequencies produced by more than one perturbing bodies. The presence of secondary resonances sculpts the dynamical structure of the phase space. Hence, identifying their location is a relevant task for theoretical studies. In the present paper we combine the methods introduced in two recent papers (Páez and Efthymiopoulos in Celest Mech Dyn Astron 121(2):139, 2015; Páez and Locatelli in MNRAS 453(2):2177, 2015) in order to analytically predict the location of secondary resonances in the Trojan problem. In Páez and Efthymiopoulos (2015), the motion of a Trojan body was studied in the context of the planar Elliptic Restricted Three Body or the planar Restricted Multi-Planet Problem. It was shown that the Hamiltonian admits a generic decomposition \(H=H_b+H_{sec}\). The term \(H_b\), called the basic Hamiltonian, is a model of two degrees of freedom characterizing the short-period and synodic motions of a Trojan body. Also, it yields a constant ‘proper eccentricity’ allowing to define a third secular frequency connected to the body’s perihelion precession. \(H_{sec}\) contains all remaining secular perturbations due to the primary or to additional perturbing bodies. Here, we first investigate up to what extent the decomposition \(H=H_b+H_{sec}\) provides a meaningful model. To this end, we produce numerical examples of surfaces of section under \(H_b\) and compare with those of the full model. We also discuss how secular perturbations alter the dynamics under \(H_b\). Secondly, we explore the normal form approach introduced in Páez and Locatelli (2015) in order to find an ‘averaged over the fast angle’ model derived from \(H_b\), circumventing the problem of the series’ limited convergence due to the collision singularity at the 1:1 MMR. Finally, using this averaged model, we compute semi-analytically the position of the most important secondary resonances and compare the results with those found by numerical stability maps in specific examples. We find a very good agreement between semi-analytical and numerical results in a domain whose border coincides with the transition to large-scale chaotic Trojan motions.     

Cosmic strings in a five dimensional spherically symmetric background in $$ gravity

We study the physical behavior of a five dimensional non-static spherically symmetric cosmological models in the presence of massive strings in the framework of \(f(R,T)\) gravity proposed by Harko et al. (Phys. Rev. D 84:024020, 2011). Here \(R\) is the Ricci scalar and \(T\) is the trace of the stress energy tensor and the fifth dimension is not observed because it is compact. We solve the field equations (i) using a relation between the scale factors given by Samantha and Dhal (Int. J. Theor. Phys. 52:1334, 2013) and (ii) equations of state for string models. The models obtained correspond to \(p\)-string, geometric string and massive string models in this modified theory in five dimensions. Cosmological parameters of the models are determined and their dynamical properties are discussed.     

Keplerian integrals,elimination theory and identification of very short arcs in a large database of optical observations

Modern asteroid surveys produce an increasingly large number of observations, which are grouped into very short arcs (VSAs) each containing a few observations of the same object in one single night. To decide whether two VSAs collected in different nights correspond to the same observed object we can attempt to compute an orbit with the observations of both arcs: this is called the linkage problem. Since the number of linkages to be attempted is very large, we need efficient methods of orbit determination. Using the first integrals of Kepler’s motion we can write algebraic equations for the linkage problem, which can be put in polynomial form. In Gronchi et al. (Celest Mech Dyn Astron 123(2):105–122, 2015) these equations are reduced to a polynomial equation of degree 9: the unknown is the topocentric distance of the observed body at the mean epoch of one VSA. Here we derive the same equations in a more concise way, and show that the degree 9 is optimal in a sense that will be specified in Sect. 3.3. We also introduce a procedure to join three VSAs: from the conservation of angular momentum we obtain a polynomial equation of degree 8 in the topocentric distance at the mean epoch of the second VSA. For both identification methods, with two and three VSAs, we discuss how to discard solutions. Finally, we present some numerical tests showing that the new methods give satisfactory results and can be used also when the time separation between the VSAs is large. The low polynomial degree of the new methods makes them well suited to deal with the very large number of asteroid observations collected by the modern surveys.     

Comets,Enceladus and panspermia

A growing body of evidence suggests the operation of life and life processes in comets as well in larger icy bodies in the solar system including Enceladus. Attempts to interpret such data without invoking active biology are beginning to look weak and flawed. The emerging new paradigm is that life is a cosmic phenomenon as proposed by Hoyle and Wickramasinghe (Lifecloud: the Origin of Life in the Galaxy, 1978) and first supported by astronomical spectroscopy (Wickramasinghe and Allen, Nature 287:518, 1980; Allen and Wickramasinghe, Nature 294:239, 1981; Wickramasinghe and Allen, Nature 323:44, 1986). Comets are the transporters and amplifiers of microbial life throughout the Universe and are also, according to this point of view, the carriers of viruses that contribute to the continued evolution of life. Comets brought life to Earth 4.2 billion years ago and they continue to do so. Space extrapolations of comets, Enceladus and possibly Pluto supports this point of view. Impacts of asteroids and comets on the Earth as well as on other planetary bodies leads to the ejection of life-bearing dust and rocks and a mixing of microbiota on a planetary scale and on an even wider galactic scale. It appears inevitable that the entire galaxy will be a single connected biosphere.     

Relativistic satellite orbits: central body with higher zonal harmonics

Satellite orbits around a central body with arbitrary zonal harmonics are considered in a relativistic framework. Our starting point is the relativistic Celestial Mechanics based upon the first post-Newtonian approximation to Einstein’s theory of gravity as it has been formulated by Damour et al. (Phys Rev D 43:3273–3307, 1991; 45:1017–1044, 1992; 47:3124–3135, 1993; 49:618–635, 1994). Since effects of order \((\mathrm{GM}/c^2R) \times J_k\) with \(k \ge 2\) for the Earth are very small (of order \( 7 \times 10^{-10}\,\times \,J_k\)) we consider an axially symmetric body with arbitrary zonal harmonics and a static external gravitational field. In such a field the explicit \(J_k/c^2\)-terms (direct terms) in the equations of motion for the coordinate acceleration of a satellite are treated first with first-order perturbation theory. The derived perturbation theoretical results of first order have been checked by purely numerical integrations of the equations of motion. Additional terms of the same order result from the interaction of the Newtonian \(J_k\)-terms with the post-Newtonian Schwarzschild terms (relativistic terms related to the mass of the central body). These ‘mixed terms’ are treated by means of second-order perturbation theory based on the Lie-series method (Hori–Deprit method). Here we concentrate on the secular drifts of the ascending node \(<\!{\dot{\Omega }}\!>\) and argument of the pericenter \(<\!{\dot{\omega }}\!>\). Finally orders of magnitude are given and discussed.