Orbital evolution of Centaurs and transport of materials in the Solar system

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K04054
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 17010:Space and planetary sciences-related
• Research Institution: Kyoto Sangyo University (2022-2023); University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (2020-2021)
• Principal Investigator: Higuchi Arika 京都産業大学, 理学部, 准教授 (90597139)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 伊藤 孝士 国立天文台, 天文データセンター, 助教 (40280565)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: ケンタウルス / 制限三体問題

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Celestial bodies that orbit between Jupiter and Neptune and are not in 1:1 resonance with the planets are called centaurs. The elementary process of orbital evolution of centaurs that still flow into the interior from outside Neptune can be described by the restricted three-body problem.
In this study, the orbital evolution of Centaurs is described by superposition of the circular restricted three-body problem, and the validity of the analytical description of the trends in the radial migration of the object and changes in the orbital eccentricity and inclination is evaluated using numerical calculations. The well-known conserved quantity of the circle-limited three-body problem, the Tisserand parameter (which approximates the Jacobi energy and is expressed in terms of orbital elements), is treated as a variable in systems with more than one planet, and the rate of change is related to the rate of change of orbital elements.

Free Research Field

太陽系科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ケンタウルスは巨大惑星領域にあり惑星の摂動を強く受けるため、典型的には数百万年という短い時間でケンタウルスと呼ばれる領域から去ってしまう。このことはケンタウルスが海王星以遠から絶えず供給されているということを意味する。この定常的な質量の内側への輸送は過去、現在、未来においてどれくらいあるのかを知ることができれば、地球など内側の惑星の表層への物質輸送の可能性を示すことができる。本研究は、観測されるケンタウルスの現在の軌道から、ケンタウルスとなってからの経過時間や今後の滞在時間を推測することに役立つ。