Asteroid 2015 DB216: a recurring co-orbital companion to Uranus
C. de la Fuente Marcos, R. de la Fuente Marcos
(Submitted on 27 Jul 2015)
Minor bodies trapped in 1:1 co-orbital resonances with a host planet could be relevant to explain the origin of captured satellites. Among the giant planets, Uranus has one of the smallest known populations of co-orbitals, three objects, and all of them are short-lived. Asteroid 2015 DB216 has an orbital period that matches well that of Uranus, and here we investigate its dynamical state. Direct N-body calculations are used to assess the current status of this object, reconstruct its immediate dynamical past, and explore its future orbital evolution. A covariance matrix-based Monte Carlo scheme is presented and applied to study its short-term stability. We find that 2015 DB216 is trapped in a temporary co-orbital resonance with Uranus, the fourth known minor body to do so. A detailed analysis of its dynamical evolution shows that it is an unstable but recurring co-orbital companion to Uranus. It currently follows an asymmetric horseshoe trajectory that will last for at least 10 kyr, but it may remain inside Uranus’ co-orbital zone for millions of years. As in the case of other transient Uranian co-orbitals, complex multibody ephemeral mean motion resonances trigger the switching between the various resonant co-orbital states. The new Uranian co-orbital exhibits a secular behaviour markedly different from that of the other known Uranian co-orbitals because of its higher inclination, nearly 38 degrees. Given its rather unusual discovery circumstances, the presence of 2015 DB216 hints at the existence of a relatively large population of objects moving in similar orbits.
Comments: 9 pages, 12 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1507.07449 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1507.07449v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Raúl de la Fuente Marcos [view email]
[v1] Mon, 27 Jul 2015 15:32:40 GMT (703kb)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.07449
