Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Apr 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aps..apr.j4002m&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, April Meeting, Jointly Sponsored with the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American As
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
This talk will review recent advances in understanding the long term dynamics of our Solar system and of planetary configurations in general. The dynamics of our Solar system includes both chaotic and stable motions. The large planets exhibit remarkable stability of their orbital parameters on gigayear timescales, while also possessing all the formal characteristics of a chaotic dynamical system. The small bodies in our Solar system -- asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt objects, and interplanetary dust particles -- contain a mix of stable and chaotic populations with a wide range of orbital instability timescales, a characteristic that makes the Solar system as a whole a continously evolving and dynamic system. Early in the history of the Solar system, gravitational interactions between the large planets and the remnant planetesimal disk caused the planets to evolve from a prior more compact and less stable orbital configuration to the current stable-but-weakly-chaotic dynamic state. It is unclear whether the `architecture' of our Solar system should be expected to be typical of planetary systems about Sun-like stars. Recently-discovered extra-solar planetary systems have diverse architectures, generally in great contrast with ours. The details of a planetary system configuration may be critical to the habitability of planets.
No associations
LandOfFree
Chaos and Stability in Planetary Systems does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Chaos and Stability in Planetary Systems, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Chaos and Stability in Planetary Systems will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1534579