Long term orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillations of the planets in our solar system

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dc.contributor.authorMouton, Hendrik D
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-25T08:27:12Z
dc.date.available2017-01-25T08:27:12Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.description.abstractThe orbits of the planets in our solar system are not in the same plane, therefore natural torques stemming from Newton’s gravitational forces exist to pull them all back to the same plane. This causes the inclinations of the planet orbits to oscillate with potentially long periods and very small damping, because the friction in space is very small. Orbital inclination changes are known for some planets in terms of current rates of change, but the oscillation periods are not well published. They can however be predicted with proper dynamic simulations of the solar system. A three-dimensional dynamic simulation was developed for our solar system capable of handling 12 objects, where all objects affect all other objects. Each object was considered to be a point mass which proved to be an adequate approximation for this study. Initial orbital radii, eccentricities and speeds were set according to known values. The validity of the simulation was demonstrated in terms of short term characteristics such as sidereal periods of planets as well as long term characteristics such as the orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillation periods of Jupiter and Saturn. A significantly more accurate result, than given on approximate analytical grounds in a well-known solar system dynamics textbook, was found for the latter period. Empirical formulas were developed from the simulation results for both these periods for three-object solar type systems. They are very accurate for the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn as well as for some other comparable systems.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationMouton, H. D. (2016). <i>Long term orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillations of the planets in our solar system</i> University of Cape Town. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23009en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationMouton, Hendrik D <i>Long term orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillations of the planets in our solar system.</i> University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23009en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationMouton HD, Long term orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillations of the planets in our solar systemen_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Report AU - Mouton, Hendrik D AB - The orbits of the planets in our solar system are not in the same plane, therefore natural torques stemming from Newton’s gravitational forces exist to pull them all back to the same plane. This causes the inclinations of the planet orbits to oscillate with potentially long periods and very small damping, because the friction in space is very small. Orbital inclination changes are known for some planets in terms of current rates of change, but the oscillation periods are not well published. They can however be predicted with proper dynamic simulations of the solar system. A three-dimensional dynamic simulation was developed for our solar system capable of handling 12 objects, where all objects affect all other objects. Each object was considered to be a point mass which proved to be an adequate approximation for this study. Initial orbital radii, eccentricities and speeds were set according to known values. The validity of the simulation was demonstrated in terms of short term characteristics such as sidereal periods of planets as well as long term characteristics such as the orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillation periods of Jupiter and Saturn. A significantly more accurate result, than given on approximate analytical grounds in a well-known solar system dynamics textbook, was found for the latter period. Empirical formulas were developed from the simulation results for both these periods for three-object solar type systems. They are very accurate for the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn as well as for some other comparable systems. DA - 2016 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - Not published LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2016 T1 - Long term orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillations of the planets in our solar system TI - Long term orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillations of the planets in our solar system UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23009 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/23009
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationMouton HD. Long term orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillations of the planets in our solar system. 2016 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23009en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisherUniversity of Cape Townen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Mechanical Engineeringen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_ZA
dc.sourceNot publisheden_ZA
dc.titleLong term orbital inclination and eccentricity oscillations of the planets in our solar systemen_ZA
dc.typeReporten_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceResearch Reporten_ZA
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