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| Paper: |
Motions in Extrasolar Planetary Systems: Between Regularity and Chaos |
| Volume: |
316, Order and Chaos in Stellar and Planetary Systems |
| Page: |
145 |
| Authors: |
Sokolov, L.; Pitjev, N. |
| Abstract: |
Most of the discovered extrasolar planets are massive, Jupiter-sized bodies, moving about their central stars along considerably eccentric orbits. Low-mass planets like the Earth still cannot be observed in these systems. However, their existence is especially interesting in view of the search for extraterrestrial life as well as planetary formation theories. In this work, we examine the orbital stability of low-mass planets in the systems with “Jupiters” on eccentric orbits, in the frame of restricted elliptical three-body problem. The initial orbit of the massless particle representing an Earth-sized planet is circular. The regions of regular and chaotic motion are studied, a simple analytical model of the regular motion is presented. If the distance between the orbits of “Jupiters” and massless particle is sufficiently small, the motion becomes chaotic. In the transition region between the regularity and chaos the trajectory properties are highly sensitive to the initial positions of planets on their orbits. These trajectories are investigated in more detail. In contrast to the region of regular motion, we found that low-eccentricity orbits exist in the transition region, some of which are stable on the time scale of 106 orbital revolutions of “Jupiters.” |
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