Orbit determination of the moons of the Pluto-Charon system

Abstract

Four small moons (Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra) are at present known to orbit around the barycenter of Pluto and Charon, which are themselves considered a binary dwarf-planet due to their relatively high mass ratio. The central, non-axisymmetric potential induces moon orbits inconvenient to be described by Keplerian osculating elements. Here, we report that observed orbital variations, may not be the result of orbital eccentricities or observational uncertainties, but may be due to forced oscillations caused by the central binary. We show, using numerical integration and analytical considerations, that the differences reported on their orbital elements, may well arise from this intrinsic behavior rather than limitations on our instruments.

20 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy

References in corpus (6)

• Analytic orbit propagation for transiting circumbinary planets
• A Pluto--Charon Sonata: Dynamical Limits on the Masses of the Small Satellites
• A Pluto-Charon Concerto: An Impact on Charon as the Origin of the Small Satellites
• On the Estimation of Circumbinary Orbital Properties
• A Numerical Method for Determining the Elements of Circumbinary Orbits and Its Application to Circumbinary Planets and the Satellites of Pluto-Charon
• A Pluto--Charon Concerto II. Formation of a Circumbinary Disk of Debris After the Giant Impact

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Orbital analysis of the Pluto-Charon moon system's mutual interactions and forced frequencies
• A Pluto--Charon Sonata IV. Improved Constraints on the Dynamical Behavior and Masses of the Small Satellites