2009/07/31 by Alexander Melnikov, Alexander V. Melnikov, Ivan I. Shevchenko · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Aerospace engineering #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics #Classical mechanics #Computer science #Engineering #Geodesy #Geology #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Geometry #Mathematics #Orbit (dynamics) #Physics #Rotation (mathematics) #Stability (learning theory) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Tidal locking #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1743921310001705
published in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 5(S263), 167-170 (Cambridge University Press) · 5 pages, 1 figure
openalex publication_date 2009/08/01 · arxiv created 2010/05/13 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract We investigate the problem of the typical rotation states of the small planetary satellites from the viewpoint of the dynamical stability of their rotation. We show that the majority of the discovered satellites with unknown rotation periods cannot rotate synchronously, because no stable synchronous 1:1 spin-orbit state exists for them. They rotate either much faster than synchronously (those tidally unevolved) or, what is much less probable, chaotically (tidally evolved objects or captured slow rotators).