Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.4701p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #47.01
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Two new companions of the Pluto-Charon binary system have been discovered in 2006. These small satellites, named Nix and Hydra, are located beyond Charon's orbit. Although they are small when compared to Charon, their gravitational perturbations decrease the stability of the external region of the system. We numerically simulated a sample of particles under the gravitational influence of Pluto, Charon, Nix and Hydra. Our results show that there is a stable region between 2.15a and 2.30a (a=19570 km), depending on the value of the eccentricity (e). The stable region located between Nix and Hydra (from 2.76a to 3.01a) is limited for e < 0.075. The external stable region beyond Hydra's orbit starts at 3.58a.
We also numerically simulated a sample of small putative satellites located at these "new" stable regions in order to verify their gravitational perturbations on Nix and Hydra's orbital eccentricity. From these results we could estimate an upper limit on the size of these putative satellites. Between Nix and Hydra's orbits a putative satellite, larger than 22 km in radius, can not exist without violating Nix and Hydra's eccentricities constraints. We also present the maximum radius of these putative satellites for those stable regions located inside Nix's and beyond Hydra's orbits.
The authors thank FAPESP for the financial support.
Giuliatti Winter S.
Pires Dos Santos Pryscilla Maria
Sfair de Oliveira R.
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