Open AccessBehavior of Apsidal Orientations in Planetary Systems
Author(s) -
Rory Barnes,
R. Greenberg
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the astrophysical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376
H-Index - 489
eISSN - 1538-4357
pISSN - 0004-637X
DOI - 10.1086/510068
Subject(s) - apsidal precession , planet , physics , exoplanet , libration (molecule) , orbit (dynamics) , planetary system , amplitude , astrophysics , classical mechanics , astrobiology , astronomy , geometry , mathematics , aerospace engineering , optics , point (geometry) , engineering
A widely considered characteristic of extra-solar planetary systems has beena seeming tendency for major axes of adjacent orbits to librate in stableconfigurations. Based on a new catalog of extra-solar planets (Butler et al.2006) and our numerical integrations, we find that such small amplitudeoscillations are actually not common, but in fact quite rare; most pairs ofplanets' major axes a re consistenet with circulating relative to one another.However, the new result s are consistent with studies that find that two-planetsystems tend to lie near a separatrix between libration and circulation.Similarly, in systems of more than two planets, many adjacent orbits lie near aseparatrix that divides modes of circulation.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, accepted to ApJ Letter
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