Interpretation of Mercury's Rotation State

Details Interpretation of Mercury's Rotation State Interpretation of Mercury's Rotation State

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.5104p&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #51.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.490

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Scientific paper

Radar observations have revealed that Mercury's spin axis occupies Cassini state 1 with an obliquity of 2.11± 0.1 arcminutes, and a forced 88 day libration of the spin about the 3:2 spin-orbit resonance of 35.8± 2 arcseconds, which determines (B-A)/Cm=(2.03± 0.12)× 10-4. (AThere are other forced variations of Mercury's spin rate due to the planetary perturbations of the orbit in addition to a possible free libration of arbitrary amplitude and phase whose period is determined by the value of (B-A)/Cm to be near 12 years. An observed free libration would require recent excitation because of rapid damping. But the close proximity of the free libration period to Jupiter's orbital period means there could be a large near resonant forced libration with Jupiter's period that is possible within the 1 sigma uncertainty in (B-A)/Cm. Numerical integrations show that the variations in Mercury's rotation rate reveal the periods of the orbital perturbations in exquisite detail, but these are of relatively small amplitude. However, a nearly resonant 18.86 year forced libration could exceed the amplitude of the 88 day forced libration.

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