Physics
Scientific paper
Aug 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001algor..37...25d&link_type=abstract
Algorismus, Volume 37, p. 25-37 (2001)
Physics
Mercury, Orbit, Chaos
Scientific paper
From different approaches we believe in the stability of our planetary system over time scales of billions of years. Since the pioneering work of J. Laskar concerning the dynamics of the inner planetary system we know that it is chaotic; this does not mean that it is unstable, but it let opened these question. It was again J. Laskar who published a study on the long term dynamics of the whole planetary system over billions of years. There he found in fact that Mercury's orbit - after some minor ``corrections'' of the initial conditions - could achieve an eccentricity of almost 1! He concludes, that this could lead - after a close approach to Venus - to an escape of the innermost planet. The results were derived with the aid of numerical integrations of the secular system, where the right hand sides were developed up to the 5(th) order in the small parameters eccentricities and inclinations. Test calculations of the equations of motions (taking into account all the Newtonian perturbations with the planets as mass points) could confirm the results partly. It is shown, that Venus cannot really throw Mercury out, but a different effect could lead to very eccentric Venus crossing orbits, where even collisions may happen.
Dvorak Rudolf
Freistetter Florian
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