2006/10/11 by Rory Barnes, Richard Greenberg
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Apsidal precession #Astro and Planetary Science #Celestial mechanics #Libration (molecule) #Orbit (dynamics) #Planet #Planetary system #Separatrix #Spacecraft Dynamics and Control #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/510068
published as Astrophys.J.652:L53-L54,2006 · 12 pages, 3 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2006/10/11 · openalex publication_date 2006/11/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A widely considered characteristic of extrasolar planetary systems has been a seeming tendency for major axes of adjacent orbits to librate in stable configurations. Based on a new catalog of extrasolar planets (Butler et al.) and our numerical integrations, we find that such small-amplitude oscillations are actually not common but in fact quite rare; most pairs of planets' major axes are consistent with circulating relative to one another. However, the new results are consistent with studies that find that two-planet systems tend to lie near a separatrix between libration and circulation. Similarly, in systems of more than two planets, many adjacent orbits lie near a separatrix that divides modes of circulation.