The Chaotic Nature of TRAPPIST-1 Planetary Spin States

Abstract

The TRAPPIST-1 system has 7 known terrestrial planets arranged compactly in a mean motion resonant chain around an ultra-cool central star, some within the estimated habitable zone. Given their short orbital periods of just a few days, it is often presumed that the planets are tidally locked such that the spin rate is equal to that of the orbital mean motion. However, the compact, and resonant, nature of the system implies that there can be significant variations in the mean motion of these planets due to their mutual interactions. We show that such fluctuations can then have significant effects on the spin states of these planets. In this paper, we analyze, using detailed numerical simulations, the mean motion histories of the three planets that are thought to lie within or close to the habitable zone of the system: planets d, e, and f. We demonstrate that, depending on the strength of the mutual interactions within the system, these planets can be pushed into spin states which are effectively non-synchronous. We find that it can produce significant libration of the spin state, if not complete circulation in the frame co-rotating with the orbit. We also show that these spin states are likely to be unable to sustain long-term stability, with many of our simulations suggesting that the spin evolves, under the influence of tidal synchronization forces, into quasi-stable attractor states, which last on timescales of thousands of years.

arXiv comment9 pages, 11 figures. Added new results for best-fit of real TRAPPIST-1 system, added clarifications, fixed typos, and added new references. Accepted to MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• A review of possible planetary atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 system
• Water Ice Cloud Variability & Multi-Epoch Transmission Spectra of TRAPPIST-1e
• Sporadic Spin-Orbit Variations in Compact Multi-planet Systems and their Influence on Exoplanet Climate
• GRIT: a package for structure-preserving simulations of gravitationally interacting rigid-bodies
• Drifts of the sub-stellar points of the TRAPPIST-1 planets
• TRAPPIST-1h as an Exo-Titan. I. The Role of Assumptions about Atmospheric Parameters in Understanding an Exoplanet Atmosphere
• Day and Night: Habitability of Tidally Locked Planets with Sporadic Rotation
• Estimation of the tidal heating in the TRAPPIST-1 planets. Influence of the internal structure
• Atmospheric gravitational tides of Earth-like planets orbiting low-mass stars