Forced Resonant Migration of Pluto's Outer Satellites by Charon

@article{Ward2006ForcedRM,
  title={Forced Resonant Migration of Pluto's Outer Satellites by Charon},
  author={William Rankin. Ward and Robin M. Canup},
  journal={Science},
  year={2006},
  volume={313},
  pages={1107 - 1109}
}
Two small moons of Pluto have been discovered in low-eccentricity orbits exterior to Pluto's large satellite, Charon. All three satellite orbits are nearly coplanar, implying a common origin. It has been argued that Charon formed as a result of a giant impact with primordial Pluto. The orbital periods of the two new moons are nearly integer multiples of Charon's period, suggesting that they were driven outward by resonant interactions with Charon during its tidal orbital expansion. This could… 
View on AAAS
boulder.swri.edu
50 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
6
Background Citations
31
Methods Citations
5
Results Citations
1

50 Citations

On the origin of Pluto’s small satellites by resonant transport

FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF PLUTO’S SMALL SATELLITES

Pluto's system of five known satellites is in a puzzling orbital configuration. Each of the four small satellites are on low-eccentricity and low-inclination orbits situated near a mean motion…

On the Early In Situ Formation of Pluto’s Small Satellites

The formation of Pluto’s small satellites—Styx, Nix, Keberos, and Hydra—remains a mystery. Their orbits are nearly circular and are near mean-motion resonances and nearly coplanar with Charon’s…

A Pluto–Charon Sonata: The Dynamical Architecture of the Circumbinary Satellite System

Using a large suite of n-body simulations, we explore the discovery space for new satellites in the Pluto–Charon system. For the adopted masses and orbits of the known satellites, there are few…

The evolution of the pluto system

A giant impact origin of Pluto’s large satellite Charon leaves Pluto initially spinning rapidly and Charon in a close, eccentric orbit[1]. With coefficients J2 and C22 in the gravitational fields of…

A Pluto–Charon Concerto. II. Formation of a Circumbinary Disk of Debris after the Giant Impact

Using a suite of numerical calculations, we consider the long-term evolution of circumbinary debris from the Pluto–Charon giant impact. Initially, these solids have large eccentricity and pericenters…

THE FORMATION OF PLUTO'S LOW-MASS SATELLITES

Motivated by the New Horizons mission, we consider how Pluto's small satellites—currently Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra—grow in debris from the giant impact that forms the Pluto–Charon binary. After…

Tidal evolution of the Pluto–Charon binary

  • A. Correia
  • Geology, Physics
    Astronomy & Astrophysics
  • 2020
A giant collision is believed to be at the origin of the Pluto–Charon system. As a result, the initial orbit and spins after impact may have substantially differed from those observed today. More…

A Pluto–Charon Concerto: An Impact on Charon as the Origin of the Small Satellites

We consider a scenario where the small satellites of Pluto and Charon grew within a disk of debris from an impact between Charon and a trans-Neptunian object (TNO). After Charon’s orbital motion…

A Pluto–Charon Sonata: Dynamical Limits on the Masses of the Small Satellites

During 2005–2012, images from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) revealed four moons orbiting Pluto–Charon. Although their orbits and geometric shapes are well-known, the 2σ uncertainties in the masses of…

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 20 REFERENCES

A Giant Impact Origin of Pluto-Charon

Hydrodynamic simulations are used to demonstrate that the formation of Pluto-Charon by means of a large collision is quite plausible, and suggest that collisions between 1000-kilometer-class objects occurred in the early inner Kuiper belt.

A giant impact origin for Pluto's small moons and satellite multiplicity in the Kuiper belt

It is argued that dust–ice rings of variable optical depths form sporadically in the Pluto system, and that rich satellite systems may be found—perhaps frequently—around other large Kuiper belt objects.

The confinement of Neptune's ring arcs by the moon Galatea

It is reported that a resonance based on Galatea's eccentricity is responsible for the angular confinement of the arcs, and the mass of the arc affects the precession of GalateA's eccentric orbit, which will enable a mass estimate from future observations ofGalatea'S eccentricity.

Discovery of two new satellites of Pluto

The discovery of two additional moons around Pluto are reported, provisionally designated S/2005 P 1 ( hereafter P1) and S/ 2005 P 2 (hereafter P2), which makes Pluto the first Kuiper belt object known to have multiple satellites.

On the origin of the Pluto-Charon binary

The normalized angular momentum density of Pluto-Charon (0.45) exceeds the critical value of 0.39 above which no stably rotating single object exists, suggesting a collisional origin for this binary.…

Dynamics of Lunar Formation

▪ Abstract The giant impact theory is the leading hypothesis for the origin of the Moon. This review focuses on dynamical aspects of an impact-induced lunar formation, in particular those areas that…

The origin of the eccentricities of the rings of Uranus

We consider the effect of gravitational perturbations from a nearby satellite on the eccentricity e of a narrow particulate ring. The perturbations near a resonance in an eccentric ring may be…

Formation of Kuiper-belt binaries by dynamical friction and three-body encounters

It is shown that a transient binary forms when two large bodies penetrate one another's Hill sphere (the region where their mutual forces are larger than the tidal force of the Sun) and the loss of energy needed to stabilize the binary orbit can occur through dynamical friction from surrounding small bodies, or through the gravitational scattering of a third large body.

Orbits and Photometry of Pluto's Satellites: Charon, S/2005 P1, and S/2005 P2

We present new astrometry of Pluto's three satellites from images taken of the Pluto system during 2002-2003 with the High Resolution Camera mode of the Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument on the…

Q in the solar system