The chaotic orbital motion of Prometheus and Pandora, the 16th and 17th satellites of Saturn, is studied. Chaos in their orbital motion, as found by Goldreich & Rappaport and Renner & Sicardy, is due to interaction of resonances in the resonance multiplet corresponding to the 121:118 commensurability of the mean motions of the satellites. It is shown rigorously that the system moves in adiabatic regime. The Lyapunov time (the 'time horizon of predictability' of the motion) is calculated analytically and compared to the available numerical-experimental estimates. For this purpose, a method of analytical estimation of the maximum Lyapunov exponent in the perturbed pendulum model of non-linear resonance is applied. The method is based on the separatrix map theory. An analytical estimate of the width of the chaotic layer is made as well, based on the same theory. The ranges of chaotic diffusion in the mean motion are shown to be almost twice as big compared to previous estimates for both satellites.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1211-1220
Number of pages10
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume384
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Mar 2008

    Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

    Research areas

  • Celestial mechanics, Planets and satellites: individual: Saturn

ID: 45988430