Dynamics of capture in the restricted threebody problem.pdfVIP

**TITLE** ASP Conference Series, Vol. **VOLUME***, **YEAR OF PUBLICATION** **NAMES OF EDITORS** Dynamics of Capture in the Restricted Three-Body Problem Sergey A. Astakhov Department of Chemistry Biochemistry, Utah State University, 3 Logan, Utah 84322-0300, USA 0 0 2 Andrew D. Burbanks, Stephen Wiggins t School of Mathematics, University of Bristol BS8 1TW, UK c O David Farrelly 1 2 Department of Chemistry Biochemistry, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322-0300, USA 1 v 8 Abstract. We propose a new dynamical model for capture of irregular 1 moons which identifies chaos as the essential feature responsible for initial 6 temporary gravitational trapping within a planet’s Hill sphere. The key 0 point is that incoming potential satellites get trapped in chaotic orbits 1 3 close to “sticky” KAM tori in the neighbourhood of the planet, possibly 0 for very long times, so that the chaotic layer largely dictates the final / orbital properties of captured moons. h p - o r t 1. Introduction s a : The often puzzling properties of the irregular satellites of the giant planets – v i most of which have been discovered during the last six years (see Gladman et X al. 2001; Hamilton 2003; Sheppard Jewitt 2003; references therein and IAU r Circular 8193) – provide a window into condit