14 research outputs found
A Motivating Exploration on Lunar Craters and Low-Energy Dynamics in the Earth -- Moon System
It is known that most of the craters on the surface of the Moon were created
by the collision of minor bodies of the Solar System. Main Belt Asteroids,
which can approach the terrestrial planets as a consequence of different types
of resonance, are actually the main responsible for this phenomenon. Our aim is
to investigate the impact distributions on the lunar surface that low-energy
dynamics can provide. As a first approximation, we exploit the hyberbolic
invariant manifolds associated with the central invariant manifold around the
equilibrium point L_2 of the Earth - Moon system within the framework of the
Circular Restricted Three - Body Problem. Taking transit trajectories at
several energy levels, we look for orbits intersecting the surface of the Moon
and we attempt to define a relationship between longitude and latitude of
arrival and lunar craters density. Then, we add the gravitational effect of the
Sun by considering the Bicircular Restricted Four - Body Problem. As further
exploration, we assume an uniform density of impact on the lunar surface,
looking for the regions in the Earth - Moon neighbourhood these colliding
trajectories have to come from. It turns out that low-energy ejecta originated
from high-energy impacts are also responsible of the phenomenon we are
considering.Comment: The paper is being published in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical
Astronomy, vol. 107 (2010
Polytropes - Applications in Astrophysics and Related Fields
This book provides the most complete academic treatment on the application of polytropes ever published. It is primarily intended for students and scientists working in Astrophysics and related fields. It provides a full overview of past and present research results and is an indispensible guide for everybody wanting to apply polytropes
Instability of Embedded Polytropes
The equivalende of two stability criteria (decreasing pressure with increasing radius versus increasing central density with increasing mass) is shown analytically for spherical polytropes without background medium, and numerically for embedded ones. Previous results concerning the instability under external pressure of incomplete (truncated) polytropes within a uniform background medium are shown to be not true. The spherical incomplete embedded polytrope is stable/unstable for the same polytropic indices and for the same background densities as the corresponding compete embedded polytrope