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How do the small planetary satellites rotate?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2010

Alexander V. Melnikov  and
Ivan I. Shevchenko
Alexander V. Melnikov
Affiliation:
Pulkovo Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pulkovskoje ave. 65, St.Petersburg 196140, Russia email: [email protected], [email protected]
Ivan I. Shevchenko
Affiliation:
Pulkovo Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pulkovskoje ave. 65, St.Petersburg 196140, Russia email: [email protected], [email protected]
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Abstract

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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).

Keywords

Planets and satellites: general
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S263: Icy Bodies of the Solar System , August 2009 , pp. 167 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

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