Excitation of Mercury's Free Libration in Longitude

Details Excitation of Mercury's Free Libration in Longitude Excitation of Mercury's Free Libration in Longitude

Jun 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dda....37.1602p&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #37, #16.02

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The variation in the Mercury's orbital elements from planetary perturbations excite a free libration in longitude ( 10 year period) of the axis of minimum moment of inertia about the value (averaged over an orbit period) it would have had at any instant if the rotation rate were exactly uniform at 1.5 times the orbital mean motion. This excitation is due almost entirely to the small variations in the orbital semimajor axis. A free libration will persist in spite of damping by tidal and core-mantle dissipation, although the damping will ultimately limit the maximum amplitude. Because fluctuations in the amplitude on long time scales are large, the current amplitude of the free libration can only be used to place an upper bound on the magnitude of the dissipation. Forced librations ( 60" amplitude, 88 day period) are superposed on the free libration, and measurement of the latter for the determination of Mercury's core properties will not be compromised.

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