101 research outputs found
Production and fate of the G ring arc particles due to Aegaeon (Saturn LIII)
The G ring arc hosts the smallest satellite of Saturn, Aegaeon, observed with
a set of images sent by Cassini spacecraft. Along with Aegaeon, the arc
particles are trapped in a 7:6 corotation eccentric resonance with the
satellite Mimas. Due to this resonance, both Aegaeon and the arc material are
confined to within sixty degrees of corotating longitudes. The arc particles
are dust grains which can have their orbital motions severely disturbed by the
solar radiation force. Our numerical simulations showed that Aegaeon is
responsible for depleting the arc dust population by removing them through
collisions. The solar radiation force hastens these collisions by removing most
of the 10m sized grains in less than 40 years. Some debris released from
Aegaeon's surface by meteoroid impacts can populate the arc. However, it would
take 30,000 years for Aegaeon to supply the observed amount of arc material,
and so it is unlikely that Aegaeon alone is the source of dust in the arc
2001 SN263-the contribution of their irregular shapes on the neighbourhood dynamics
The first proposed Brazilian mission to deep space, the ASTER mission, has the triple asteroid system (153591) 2001 SN263 as a target. One of the mission's main goals is to analyse the physical and dynamical structures of the system to understand its origin and evolution. This work aims to analyse how the asteroid's irregular shape interferes with the stability around the system. The results show that the irregular shape of the bodies plays an important role in the dynamics nearby the system. For instance, the perturbation due to the (153591) 2001 SN263 Alpha's shape affects the stability in the (153591) 2001 SN263 Gamma's vicinity. Similarly, the (153591) 2001 SN263 Beta's irregularity causes a significant instability in its nearby environment. As expected, the prograde case is the most unstable, while the retrograde scenario presents more stability. Additionally, we investigate how the solar radiation pressure perturbs particles of different sizes orbiting the triple system. We found that particles with a 10-50 cm radius could survive the radiation pressure for the retrograde case. Meanwhile, to resist solar radiation, the particles in prograde orbit must be larger than the particles in retrograde orbits, at least one order of magnitude.This study was financed in part by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES), in the scope of the Program CAPES-PrInt, process number 88887.310463/2018-00, International Cooperation Project number 3266, Fundaçao de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) - Proc. 2016/24561-0 and Proc. 2019/23963-5, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) - Proc. 305210/2018-1. RS acknowledges support by the DFG German Research Foundation (project 446102036). We also would like to thanks the referee, Alex B Davis, for a suggestion that impro v ed the paper
Dynamics around the binary system (65803) Didymos
Didymos and Dimorphos are primary and secondary, respectively, asteroids who
compose a binary system that make up the set of Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs).
They are targets of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first test
mission dedicated to study of planetary defense, for which the main goal is to
measure the changes caused after the secondary body is hit by a kinect
impactor. The present work intends to conduct a study, through numerical
integrations, on the dynamics of massless particles distributed in the vicinity
of the two bodies. An approximate shape for the primary body was considered as
a model of mass concentrations (mascons) and the secondary was considered as a
massive point. Our results show the location and size of stable regions, and
also their lifetime
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