On the stability of hypothetical satellites coorbital to Mimas or Enceladus |
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Authors: | D C Mourão O C Winter T Yokoyama R R Cordeiro |
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Institution: | INPE - Programa de Pós Graduação em Engenharia e Tecnologias Espaciais, São Josédos Campos, CP 515, CEP 12201-970, Brazil;Instituto de Física, Universidade de Brasilia, Brasilia, CP 04455, CEP 70919-970, Brazil;UNESP - Grupo de Dinâmica Orbital e Planetologia, Guaratinguetá, CP 205, CEP 12.516-410, Brazil;UNESP - IGCE DEMAC, Rio Claro, CP 178, CEP 13.500-970, Brazil;UFV - Departamento de Física, Viçosa, Campus Universitário, CEP 36570-000, Brazil |
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Abstract: | In the present work, we study the stability of hypothetical satellites that are coorbital with Enceladus and Mimas. We performed numerical simulations of 50 particles around the triangular Lagrangian equilibrium points of Enceladus and Mimas taking into account the perturbation of Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Titan and the oblateness of Saturn. All particles remain on tadpole orbits after 10 000 yr of integration. Since in the past the orbit of Enceladus and Mimas expanded due to the tidal perturbation, we also simulated the system with Enceladus and Mimas at several different values of semimajor axes. The results show that in general the particles remain on tadpole orbits. The exceptions occur when Enceladus is at semimajor axes that correspond to 6:7, 5:6 and 4:5 resonances with Mimas. Therefore, if Enceladus and Mimas had satellites librating around their Lagrangian triangular points in the past, they would have been removed if Enceladus crossed one of these first-order resonances with Mimas. |
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Keywords: | planets and satellites: formation planets and satellites: individual: Saturn planets and satellites: individual: Mimas planets and satellites: individual: Enceladus |
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