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Orbital dynamics in the planar Saturn-Titan system

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Abstract

We use the planar circular restricted three-body problem in order to numerically investigate the orbital dynamics of orbits of a spacecraft, or a comet, or an asteroid in the Saturn-Titan system in a scattering region around the Titan. The orbits can escape through the necks around the Lagrangian points L 1 and L 2 or collide with the surface of the Titan. We explore all the four possible Hill’s regions depending on the value of the Jacobi constant. We conduct a thorough numerical analysis on the phase space mixing by classifying initial conditions of orbits and distinguishing between three types of motion: (i) bounded, (ii) escaping and (iii) collisional. In particular, we locate the different basins and we relate them with the corresponding spatial distributions of the escape and crash times. Our results reveal the high complexity of this planetary system. Furthermore, the numerical analysis shows a strong dependence of the properties of the considered basins with the total orbital energy, with a remarkable presence of fractal basin boundaries along all the regimes. We hope our contribution to be useful in both space mission design and study of planetary systems.

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Notes

  1. The set of initial conditions of orbits which lead to a certain final state (escape, collision or bounded motion) is defined as a basin.

  2. As in Paper I we also defined initial conditions inside the radius of the Titan which are obviously collisional orbits.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous referee for the careful reading of the manuscript and for all the apt suggestions and comments which allowed us to improve both the quality and the clarity of the paper.

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  1. Department of Physics, School of Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Euaggelos E. Zotos

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Correspondence to Euaggelos E. Zotos.

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Zotos, E.E. Orbital dynamics in the planar Saturn-Titan system. Astrophys Space Sci 358, 4 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-015-2403-7

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