On the Origin of Pluto's Small Satellites by Resonant Transport

Abstract

The orbits of Pluto's four small satellites (Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra) are nearly circular and coplanar with the orbit of the large satellite Charon, with orbital periods nearly in the ratios 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, and 6:1 with Charon's orbital period. These properties suggest that the small satellites were created during the same impact event that placed Charon in orbit and had been pushed to their current positions by being locked in mean-motion resonances with Charon as Charon's orbit was expanded by tidal interactions with Pluto. Using the Pluto-Charon tidal evolution models developed by Cheng et al. (2014), we show that stable capture and transport of a test particle in multiple resonances at the same mean-motion commensurability is possible at the 5:1, 6:1, and 7:1 commensurabilities, if Pluto's zonal harmonic $J_{2P}=0$. However, the test particle has significant orbital eccentricity at the end of the tidal evolution of Pluto-Charon in almost all cases, and there are no stable captures and transports at the 3:1 and 4:1 commensurabilities. Furthermore, a non-zero hydrostatic value of $J_{2P}$ destroys the conditions necessary for multiple resonance migration. Simulations with finite but minimal masses of Nix and Hydra also fail to yield any survivors. We conclude that the placing of the small satellites at their current orbital positions by resonant transport is extremely unlikely.

arXiv comment22 pages, including 7 figures; accepted for publication in Icarus

References in corpus (9)

• Secular Evolution of Hierarchical Planetary Systems
• The Discovery of Two New Satellites of Pluto
• Masses of Nix and Hydra
• Complete Tidal Evolution of Pluto-Charon
• Circumbinary Chaos: Using Pluto's Newest Moon to Constrain the Masses of Nix & Hydra
• An Analytic Theory for the Orbits of Circumbinary Planets
• The Formation of Pluto's Low Mass Satellites
• Dynamical capture in the Pluto-Charon system
• On the Origin of Pluto's Minor Moons, Nix and Hydra

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• Crustal Failure on Icy Moons from a Strong Tidal Encounter
• A Pluto-Charon Sonata: The Dynamical Architecture of the Circumbinary Satellite System
• A Pluto-Charon Concerto: An Impact on Charon as the Origin of the Small Satellites
• A Pluto--Charon Sonata: Dynamical Limits on the Masses of the Small Satellites
• Evolution of a ring around the Pluto-Charon binary
• Past and present dynamics of the circumbinary moons in the Pluto-Charon system
• A Dynamical Systems Approach to the Theory of Circumbinary Orbits in the Circular Restricted Problem
• On the existence of regular and irregular outer moons orbiting the Pluto-Charon system
• The Fate of Debris in the Pluto-Charon System
• A Pluto--Charon Concerto II. Formation of a Circumbinary Disk of Debris After the Giant Impact
• A Pluto-Charon Sonata III. Growth of Charon from a Circum-Pluto Ring of Debris
• On the Origin of the Pluto System
• A Deep Search for Additional Satellites around the Dwarf Planet Haumea
• A Pluto--Charon Sonata IV. Improved Constraints on the Dynamical Behavior and Masses of the Small Satellites