Daphnis' Chaotic Orbit
Abstract
Cassini has changed our knowledge about Saturn system with its discoveries. One of those is Daphnis unexpected changes on its orbit. Through longitudinal analysis based on Cassini astrometry, it was revealed two changes in the moon semi-major axis. In this work we combine astrometric data derived from Cassini images and numerical simulations to show that Daphnis is in a chaotic orbit due to more than one nearby resonances with the satellites Atlas and Prometheus. We also compute the Lyapunov indicator to verify the chaotic motion of the moon. The estimated characteristic time is only few years. This is a new result about the puzzling motion of Daphnis, contributing to understand why the satellite changed orbit twice since its discovery by Cassini.
- Publication:
-
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019
- Pub Date:
- September 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019EPSC...13.1085S