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| Titel |
Rotation of Janus and Epimetheus, and other moons of Saturn |
| VerfasserIn |
Matthew Tiscareno, Peter Thomas, Joseph Burns |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2011
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 13 (2011) |
| Datensatznummer |
250049337
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Janus and Epimetheus, two small satellites of Saturn, share a remarkable co-orbital configuration in that they essentially “swap” orbits every 4.00 yr. Analysis of Cassini images (Tiscareno, Thomas, and Burns 2009, Icarus; hereafter TTB09) has shown that the moons’ rotational states are indeed affected by the orbit swap, which, of course, redefines the synchronous rotational state as the orbital periods change.
The moons quickly adopt a rotation at the new synchronous rate with a significant forced libration (i.e., an oscillation about the synchronous state, forced by the moons’ slightly eccentric orbits, e~0.01). Forced librations become large when a moon’s principal moments of inertia (A
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