The roles of L4 and L5 axial orbits in transport among co-orbital orbits.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Oshima, K
- Source
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Nov2018, Vol. 480 Issue 3, p2945-2952. 8p.
- Subject
- *ORBITS (Astronomy)
*ORBITAL mechanics
*JUPITER (Planet)
*LYAPUNOV exponents
*DIFFERENTIAL equations
*JACOBI method
- Language
- ISSN
- 0035-8711
This paper identifies L 4 and L 5 axial orbits as possible transport gateways among several types of co-orbital orbits in the Sun–Jupiter spatial circular restricted three-body problem. Computation of finite time Lyapunov exponents reveals dynamical boundaries among co-orbital orbits in the high-dimensional phase space. We find that the visualized separatrices stem from L 4 or L 5 axial orbits, which are unstable periodic orbits bifurcated from the halo-family around one of the Lagrange points L 1. Invariant manifolds emanating from L 4 and L 5 axial orbits indicate that these unstable periodic orbits separate fates of co-orbital orbits into quasi-satellite orbits and tadpole orbits, horseshoe orbits, or passing orbits depending on their values of the Jacobi constant. Possible applications of L 4 and L 5 axial orbits to space mission trajectories are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]