Abstract
Explosions of the electrolyzed ice envelopes of the Galilean satellites resulted in the appearance of a large number of ice fragments deep inside Jupiter's sphere of action. Gravitational perturbations by the Galilean satellites transferred these fragments from satellite orbits into the periphery of the sphere of action and beyond it. The fragments move initially in the direction of a satellite's motion tangentially to its orbit.
The fragments have a small angular momentum since they come from deep inside Jupiter's sphere of action. On reaching the periphery of the sphere, the fragments can acquire retrograde motion (even in the sidereal frame) because of the Sun's action.
If ejected from the zone of the Galilean satellites with a sufficient velocity, the fragments can leave Jupiter's sphere of action going both inside and outside its orbit, which leads to a substantial difference in the pattern of their subsequent motion in the vicinity of Jupiter's orbit.
The results obtained may be used to shed light on the origin of the irregular satellites (Paper 1) and Trojans (Paper 2).
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Agafonova, I.I., Drobyshevski, E.M. Implications of the Galilean satellites ice envelope explosions. I. The motion of fragments inside and beyond Jupiter's sphere of action. Earth Moon Planet 32, 241–255 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054215
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054215